The challenging part is the language. The military lives and dies by acronyms. Sometimes sources sound as if they don’t even want to speak English. I’m always stopping people midsentence to make them explain what they’re saying.
What have been some of your most memorable reporting trips?
I loved a defense secretary trip I took in May 2014. We flew from Washington to Alaska to Singapore to Afghanistan to Brussels to Romania and finished in Paris. It was an insane 10 days with so much news, but the best part was sitting in a Parisian cafe with other reporters at the end of a long day.
I was a White House reporter when I covered President Obama’s first foreign trip in 2009, to London, France, the Czech Republic, Turkey and then Iraq for a surprise detour. I was on the front page every day and felt like I was working two days for every 24 hours. But I had a ball. There was a moment in front of Prague Castle, when Mr. Obama called for the elimination of nuclear weapons in front of thousands of screaming Eastern Europeans, when I felt I was watching history being made. (I wasn’t.)
The day that I flew on Air Force One with Bruce Springsteen, during Mr. Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, was a biggie for me because I am a huge fan. I was so excited about “the Boss” that I could barely write my pool report. I ran across the tarmac screaming “Bruuuuuuce!” and then ambushed him for an “interview” before the Secret Service could separate us.
What’s the best news tip you’ve ever received?
Doug Mills, our White House photographer, called me on the night Osama bin Laden was killed to tell me he had overheard two people talking about his death at the White House. This was at least two hours before Mr. Obama confirmed it.
Because of Doug I was able to start calling sources. It’s much easier to get people to tell you something if they think you already know it.
How does it feel after you publish a big story? What do you do?
Usually writing a big story means I’m in the middle of news on my beat. And that means there’s going to be a follow-up to write. So there’s probably not time to feel relief or a rush. The bin Laden story, for instance, was immediately followed by a reconstruct the next day of how the Navy SEALs got him and how Mr. Obama made the decision.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/reader-center/helene-cooper-pentagon-correspondent.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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