What it takes to report stories from the war in the Middle East
5/2/202610 min
Covering a war isn’t easy and it takes a whole team working both on the air and behind the scenes to bring you accurate, independent reporting from the frontlines.
For this week’s Reporter’s Notebook we speak with two journalists about the challenges of covering the war in the Middle East. Durrie Bouscaren has been reporting from the Turkish-Iranian border and NPR reporter Kat Lonsdorf has been covering the war in southern Lebanon.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Gabriel Sanchez and Henry Larson.
It was edited by Adam Raney.
Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsEmily Feng· Host0:00
It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Over the past two months, NPR journalists have covered the war in the Middle East from more than a half dozen countries.
Kat Lonsdorf· Guest0:10
We've come here with the permission of Hezbollah. [drone buzzing] An Israeli surveillance drone buzzes.
Durrie Bouscaren· Guest0:16
Yusef McDead, a thirty-five-year-old father of four who tells NPR, "I live in the street in a tent like most people in Gaza."
Speaker 30:22
Dual Israeli US citizen Ari Spitz lost two legs and an arm.
Durrie Bouscaren· Guest0:27
The Iranian government has been so intent at tracking down protesters and the doctors who treated them.
Emily Feng· Host0:33
That last voice you heard was Duri Buscarin reporting from Turkey's border with Iran. Blocked from entering Iran itself, she has spoken with dozens of Iranians about their experiences since the war began more than two months ago.
Durrie Bouscaren· Guest0:46
Activists in Iran are struggling to get information out to the rest of the world.
Emily Feng· Host0:51
Meanwhile, a team of NPR journalists has been reporting from southern Lebanon, where Israel has destroyed towns and villages and occupied a large section of the country. Israel says it is creating, quote, "A buffer zone to keep Hezbollah from firing rockets or launching attacks into Israel."
Kat Lonsdorf· Guest1:08
The further we go, the more destruction from Israeli air and drone strikes we see. Rows of shops bombed out and blackened, tops blasted off high-rises, whole buildings toppled to the ground.
Emily Feng· Host1:19
Consider this: Covering a war is not easy, and it takes a whole team working both on the air and behind the scenes to bring you accurate, independent reporting from the front lines.