‘PBS NewsHour’ Anchor Amna Nawaz
Amna Naz is an early riser. The “PBS NewsHour” correspondent usually gets up between 5 and 5:30 a.m. and heads out for a run near her Alexandria, Virginia, home.
Nawaz is Muslim. She is a first-generation American. Her parents immigrated from Pakistan in 1975. Nawaz and her two sisters were actually raised in Alexandria, a bucolic town a short Metro ride from the nation’s capital. However, they spent summers in Pakistan with extended families.
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Nawaz is not happy with her morning run in early summer 2018. It was only a few months after she joined “PBS NewsHour” and moved back to Alexandria from New York. It was only two years after she assumed the presidency. Donald TrumpPresident Obama, who began his campaign with anti-immigration rhetoric, and he took office by enacting Executive Order 13699. This bans foreign nationals of seven predominantly Muslim countries from the U.S. It was only now that the sun was rising. Nawaz was used to wearing a baseball cap when running, but this morning her long, dark hair was uncovered. Nawaz was alone in the street when a white SUV-carrying man approached.
“I still remember it to this day,” she said during a recent Zoom interview from her home office. “He rolled down his window and he banged on the side of the door and he just screamed ‘Trump!’ at the top of his lungs and sped off. And I just thought, if this is happening to me, it’s happening to other people too.”
As a political journalist, Nawaz is accustomed to the nationalist strain dominating Trump’s rallies and emanating from his Twitter feed. The frequency of these tweets was difficult to comprehend.
“As a visible minority, a brown woman in America, I have occasionally received some kind of racism,” she said. “Like a lot of news organizations, [we were] It was really hard to deal with many of these stories that would be published daily from Trump’s administration, regardless of whether it was a tweet or some type of hateful language. None of us are robots when we cover a story.”
Nawaz fell in love journalism the second she received a fellowship from the ABC News Washington bureau, 2001. It was supposed to be a “stopover” between her undergraduate degree in politics, philosophy and economics (from the University of Pennsylvania) and law school. “But then 9/11 happened,” she said. “The whole world changed and I never looked back.”
On the day terrorists flew planes into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and crashed a plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, shocking the world, birthing the multitrillion-dollar war on terror and America’s longest wars, and unleashing a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment, she was working at ABC’s “Nightline,” then anchored by Ted Koppel.
“You cannot have a better example of the highest journalistic integrity and capability than Ted Koppel,” she said as her dog Eliot (named after her favorite poet, T.S. Eliot, who naps on her desk. “And I studied at the feet of Ted Koppel in one of the most uncertain and fearful times in modern American history. So that was the bar for me, watching him in action after 9/11.”
After her fellowship, she received a graduate degree from the London School of Economics in comparative politics. In 2003, she returned back to journalism. NBC News, where she worked in the investigative unit with Lisa Meyers, as a producer at “Dateline NBC” and later spearheaded the NBC Asian American vertical. She also spent several years as NBC’s Islamabad bureau chief, shuttling between hot spots in the region, including Kabul. In 2015, she returned to ABC News to report on politics and the turbulent 2016 presidential elections. In 2018, she joined “PBS NewsHour,” moderating a 2019 Democratic presidential debate with “NewsHour” anchor Judy Woodruff. In June 2021, she was promoted to chief correspondent of “NewsHour.”
When Woodruff announced in November that she would depart at the end of 2022, after more than a decade at the program, Nawaz and Geoff Bennett — chief Washington correspondent and weekend anchor who joined PBS in 2022 from NBC News — were named her successors. Woodruff will leave Friday, and Nawaz & Bennett will officially take over Monday.
Nawaz has been the primary substitute anchor for “NewsHour” since 2018. Nawaz, a Muslim American woman, has been promoted to anchor. She is a mental health advocate who has reported on the PTSD experienced by journalists in war zones as well as America’s scourge of mass shootings. Two Peabody Awards have been presented to her for her coverage of Jan. 6 Capitol Riots, and one for a PBS report on global plastic pollution. She is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank fostering democratic governance, prosperity and social equity in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Paul Werdel, a former New York Times product manager, left his job to be a stay at home parent. She is the mother of Lina, 7, as well as Karam (9). Nawaz, an empathic anchor, wears her heart on her sleeves and is a strong advocate for children’s rights.
“I bring my whole self to this job. I don’t know another way to do it, other than to pour myself into it,” she said. “And sometimes that means that you feel things and you expect your viewers will feel things too.”
Nawaz discusses her Pakistani heritage, tenure as Islamabad bureau chief, and lessons learned from Woodruff.
WWD: What did growing up in a family of immigrants teach you about your professional career?
Amna Nawaz: One Thousand percent. I believe this is part the shared experience for many first-generation kids. They come with a sense gratitude, but also optimism and a sense to serve a purpose. Your parents must have gone through a lot to make a living in a country without a safety net. They sacrificed so much for me and my sisters. This idea of collective hope is one I leaned into because when you choose to make America your home, when you choose to live here and have kids here and raise them here, what you’re saying is, I believe this country can be as good as she says she is. And I believe in all these ideals enough to leave everything I’ve ever known and travel all the way around the world and make a home. That’s what my parents did.
WWD: The rise of nationalism in America, and across Europe has been alarming. How does your experience as an immigrant impact how you report on this topic?
A.N.: My parents’ generation was really the first to grow up in independent Pakistan after the early (Indo-Pakistani) wars. The country has lived between a fledgling democracy, and military dictatorship most of its history. Although we grew up here, at the end of each school year, we would pack up and move to Pakistan for a couple or three months. From there, we would travel all over the country to see our family. We were familiar with the culture, the history, the language, and all the other things that make us unique. I witnessed firsthand how fragile democracy can be, how vulnerable they can be, and how easy it was for a system not to fall over a few weeks, months, or years. It’s death by 1,000 cuts.
As a foreign correspondent I traveled all over the globe. I traveled to Zimbabwe in 2000, when I was in college, because I wanted to witness the first democratic election in the country’s independent history. It was a familiar scene for me when I saw the swarms of people rushing up the stairs, breaking windows and threatening violence outside the Capitol on January 6. It was something I had never expected to see in the country that I call home. It’s an incredibly worrying time. I think we’re at a critical moment in American history. But truly, I think there’s never been a better time to be a journalist because it’s exactly the kind of stuff I’ve been covering for years. And I’m ready to keep covering it.
WWD: The vilification and abuse of the press is one of the hallmarks of authoritarianism. We have seen it at home and under the Trump administration. You’ve worked at ABC News and NBC News. PBS’s news operations are still viewed as trying to maintain impartiality and public broadcasting doesn’t have a commercial imperative. Is this enough to shield PBS from such criticism?
A.N.: “PBS NewsHour” is still considered the most trusted and credible brand in news, which has always been something that the team is proud of. But I think these days, as we’ve seen trust in media decline, it means that much more. My work at the “NewsHour” is following in the same path that my work at ABC and NBC did. My job is not to provide heat, but light. It’s such a messy media landscape right now; it’s really hard for people to discern what is true. We strive to be a reliable, credible source of trustworthy information. This is a very simple mission. It is this simple mission that I believe sets us apart. We’re not concerned about advertisers; we don’t have to worry about that. It is a luxury. We have an hourlong broadcast, we get to take time to explore some of these issues that other broadcasts don’t. These are not criticisms of commercial networks. I enjoyed my time there. I was raised there and learned how to become a journalist there. Being able to simplify complex topics into a few minutes is a rare skill.
WWD: Has Judy Woodruff given you any words of wisdom as she steps down as “NewsHour” anchor?
A.N.: I am aware of the hardships that women from her generation went through to get to where they were heading. My generation cannot thank you enough. They opened many doors and held them open for others to follow. This was not true for every woman in that generation. Judy is a leader within that space and has always displayed compassion and humanity. It was so difficult to cover Uvalde. People at home felt the same way. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making that connection with people. Judy has not only allowed me to do this, but she also encouraged me to do so. And I think she’s recognized that all of us, at the end of the day, are human beings.
WWD: Social media platforms amplify the most aggressive voices. However, they can also serve as a useful tool to journalists. Do you use social media a lot? Are you able to detox from it?
A.NIt can do this. It’s a flaw, which I consider a limitation. I am — probably unreasonably so — an eternal optimist. You must be this way to succeed in your job. It is important to believe that every day the work you do makes things better. Otherwise I don’t think you could show up and do it with a full heart. Setting Twitter aside for a moment — because I think that is its own separate problem right now — I see social media as another chance to reach our audience, wherever they are, or new audiences, people who may not come into contact with our work because they don’t necessarily [watch] an hourlong broadcast every day. It’s another opportunity to try to get my work and the work of my colleagues in front of more people.
However, social media still offers me a lot of information. People send me stories and information from their communities. Twitter was a wonderful source for breaking news and information when it was not under its current owner. You could find a lot of news and ongoing stories on Twitter. And I still think it’s a chance to connect with people that you otherwise wouldn’t come into contact with. This job is what I did because I like people. I find people fascinating and enjoy talking to them. People from all walks, people running countries and people running food kitchens in their communities. There still exists the potential for those connections and that’s a positive, maybe to a diminishing degree. I’m trying to use it responsibly. My guiding principle is: What good can I do today? The same applies to social media. I don’t tweet angry things. I don’t share complaints. I’m there to share information. I’m there to share stories.
WWD: You’re still on Twitter. Do you think of migrating to Mastodon or another platform?
A.N.: I haven’t seriously considered it, but it may come to that.
WWD: What stories have made a lasting impression?
A.N.: I think about [the Uvalde] Families are important to me. I’m in touch with them; that very much stays with me. I was haunted for weeks by the stories of family separation at the border. One little girl stood out, a three year-old. I met her in Juarez (Mexico) with her grandmother. Then we crossed the border into El Paso (Texas). After a day or so, I got a call from them confirming that they were separated. The next seven weeks were filled with my passion for her story, trying to find out where she was and connecting with her family. [Health and Human Services]. I was there when she was flown across country to be reunited. But for seven weeks I didn’t really sleep. I was obsessed with getting this little girl back with her family.
Because she was my Lina at the time, I believe it hurt me so much. Her head was covered in a little whale-shaped spout of hair. She also had the same big grin that covers 70% of her face when smiling. And every night I’d be putting my kids to bed and rubbing their backs and telling them it’s OK and giving them a hug. And immediately I would think who’s doing that for her? It will be remembered as one of the darkest chapters in American history. And I don’t think we even know the full extent of it yet — the damage that was wrought.
WWD: Right, and in many ways it’s yet another example of what can happen when we vilify an entire group of people.
A.N.: Making connections to our historical past is crucial in these kinds of situations. It is not the first instance of this happening, and it is important to understand why. I was with NBC when the Asian America vertical was launched. I can recall going back and looking deeper into it. [the Japanese internment camps established during World War II]. We decided at that point to imprison 100,000 citizens of our own citizens just because they were from their home country. As a nation and as system, we do these things. And when we don’t recognize why they happened before and how we got there before, we will repeat them in the future. And I do think that’s part of our responsibility as journalists — to tell the American people the truth about who we are, who we’ve been but also who we are becoming and who we can be.
WWD: On Sept. 11, you were at ABC News. Was that a memorable experience for you?
A.N.: I was at “Nightline” in [Washington, D.C.]. They offered a one-year fellowship to a random person with no journalist experience. That was me. It was a stopover, and I would go to law school. Then, the world changed and my position in it changed.
WWD: Who were your mentors? The people who helped you get things done?
A.N.: None of us get where we’re going alone. This is a difficult truth. I had amazing bosses. Ted Koppel was my mentor in a time of great uncertainty and fear in American history. This was how I saw Ted Koppel’s actions after 9/11. Two of my executive producers were Tom Bettag and Leroy Sievers (who died several years ago). They were wonderful support for me and recognized how important it is to have someone like myself in the newsroom. I was the only woman of color in the newsroom. I was the only Muslim person in the newsroom. And then, suddenly, many of the stories we were writing focused on my faith and bombs being dropped in the area I came from. Their encouragement of younger journalists was always a great experience, and this is not an uncommon first experience for those who start in journalism.
WWD: It was at NBC News where you became an anchor and producer.
A.N.: I was eventually able to go on camera in that country. I became a foreign reporter. I was the bureau chief for NBC News in Islamabad. It was the first three years of my marriage, and this is something I don’t recommend. [Laughs] I would bounce back and forth between Kabul and Islamabad. I was enlisted to cover the war in Syria. I spent much of my time at the Turkish border. My husband was back in New York, and I spent eight to nine months on the road each year for those four years. We learned to communicate well.
WWD: That’s a lot of separation and does not seem like something you would want to do once you had kids.
A.N.: Exactly. I was just three and a half months pregnant when I did one of my last military embeddeds in North Waziristan, with the Pakistan army. My husband and I were the only ones to know and I thought it was unsustainable.
WWD: Yes, everything can happen out there.
A.N. The flak jacket is also different. [Laughs]
WWD: The nausea.
A.N.: Yes! Awful. It was horrible. They thought I was having trouble with helicopters. And I was like, “No, I’m growing a human inside of me.” But I couldn’t tell them.
WWD: Then you moved to ABC News where you covered lots of politics. Which do you prefer? Politics or overseas reporting? I don’t mean to sound harsh, but covering politics these day seems quite awful.
A.N.: Here’s the thing: I think about politics in the way that it impacts people. That is my guiding principle — who is not in the room? What questions do I need to ask because these people who are being impacted aren’t here to ask them themselves? That’s what I think about when I’m in the White House briefing room or when I have a chance to interview an administration official. Who am I speaking for and on behalf of?
WWD: Your promotion to “NewsHour” anchor will put you behind a desk. You can shape the anchor role to allow you to be out on the field more.
A.N.: I think staying in a sanitized anchor bubble at a desk isn’t going to serve anyone, least of all our audience and the people that we’re here to serve. And for me as a journalist, it doesn’t work. I love being out in the world, being inside people’s homes and talking to them where they live and witnessing what they go through every day. All of this makes me a better journalist. And becoming an anchor doesn’t mean I stopped being a journalist, the two have to coexist. I think with two of you [co-anchor Geoff Bennett]We have greater flexibility and capability. This was a part of the design. I wouldn’t want to do this job and be tethered to a desk full-time. It’s not who I am as a journalist, and it’s not the way I do my journalism.
