Renowned journalist enlightens UConn students

Having been the deputy foreign editor and acting foreign editor for The New York Times, a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and currently serving as an Op-Ed columnist for both The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, Roger Cohen's reputation most certainly precedes him.

A crowd began forming outside the Student Union Theater more than 30 minutes before the famed journalist was scheduled to begin his lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. After the doors were opened, a student knocked on the side door of the stage to request an autograph on a printout of one of his articles. Handshakes and introductions from various members of an extremely diverse audience followed shortly after.

The well-respected columnist was brought to UConn through The New York Times Readership Program sponsored by the Undergraduate Government Academic Affairs committee.

"This is just one of the fantastic things we can do through this program," said Kay Bloomberg, chairperson of the committee.

"Typically, schools do not get the opportunity to host an Op-Ed columnist such as Cohen, especially one as renowned as him, so when out representatives mentioned that he was available we were all over it," said Duncan Craig, the vice chair of the Academic Affairs committee.

Bloomberg noted in an interview after the lecture that it is the sheer size of UConn's readership program that earned the committee the opportunity to host the London-born journalist without cost. The majority of the committee's budget, over $14,000 per semester, goes toward the more than 500 free New York Times newspapers on campus, which would otherwise leave little-to-no money for bringing in lecturers.

Cohen's speech focused on his areas of expertise and experience - international politics and relations, specifically between the United States and Iran.

"As we have seen in recent years, the Middle East is an area that, while quite far away geographically, can affect us all quite intimately," Cohen said.

Cohen referred to the relationship between the United States and Iran as "the most abominable relationship with another country that the United States has ever had." He credited both a lack of communication and the flawed views of the Iranians for this strained relationship.

"People think the Iranians are this embodiment of totalitarian evil," Cohen said. "They immediately picture someone belligerent and mad, wearing a turban, with their finger on the nuclear launch button."

Having visiting Iran earlier this year, Cohen can attest to the lack of truth in the image.

"We need to view Hamas and Hezbollah as movements, not as evil terrorist groups," he said. "That label is inadequate and self-defeating. We should try harder to understand than to caricaturize."

Cohen acknowledged the role President Barack Obama will play, and had already begun to play, in opening the lines of communication between the United States and Iran. He referenced the presidents' April 6 speech in Turkey that reaffirmed the need for communication between the United States and the Middle East. Cohen expressed hope that Obama would continue to influence international relations in a positive way.

Cohen went on to discuss the future of journalism, a theme that came up several times in the question-and-answer session that followed the hour-long lecture. While changes in technology have meant that writing for print newspapers has become known as a "Paleolithic profession," as Cohen said, it may be that same technology that prevents journalism from developing further.

"To report something, you have to immerse yourself in it," he said. "Now that you have the capability to be in many places at once, so to speak, how can you really delve as deeply into something? There are just too many distractions."

Cohen also commented on the way that his position as the op-ed columnist for the Times and the Herald Tribune "wasn't the ultimate goal" and instead, "just sort of happened."

Cohen spoke of how he began working for Reuters in London and was sent to Brussels as a foreign correspondent in 1979.

"It was supposed to be a sixmonth assignment, but it turned into the rest of my life," he said.

One of the other recurring themes in Cohen's lecture was his message to student journalists. He stressed the need to question what you are told and always "test everything you read against what you see, and what you think and what you smell." He advised students who wished to pursue a career in journalism to be persistent.

"There is no prescription," he said, "but to keep doing what excited you, what you love and what turns you on."