Intellect PlusJournalists
200 cards. Each one is a 40-second story with a five-minute read behind it. Page 4 of 4.
Before he was a CNN icon, Wolf Blitzer was a correspondent for the Jerusalem Post.Born in post-war Germany to Holocaust survivors, Wolf Blitzer built a career spanning decades of global conflict and political change. From his early days covering Middle East dip…
How a Jewish playwright became the satirical voice of 19th-century Egyptian nationalismYaqub Sanu was a polyglot actor and journalist who turned political caricature into a weapon against colonial rule. By writing in colloquial Egyptian Arabic rather than formal lit…
From Soviet interpreter to Russian exile: The complex legacy of Yevgeny KiselyovOnce Russia's most prominent television journalist, Yevgeny Kiselyov defined the post-Soviet era with his hard-hitting show Itogi. Today, he is a designated terrorist in his home …
How a cricket reporter invented the box score and the 'K'Before the modern era of sports analytics, one man transformed baseball from a chaotic pastime into a measurable science. Henry Chadwick didn't just report on the game; he built t…
How a soldier turned a duel-induced guilt into a literary revolutionAfter wounding a fellow officer in a duel, Richard Steele abandoned the army to pursue a different kind of combat. Through the birth of the modern periodical, he transformed the l…
The fearless journalist who survived dictators, spies, and war zonesFrom being arrested as a suspected spy in the Congo to being detained by Idi Amin in Uganda, Sandy Gall’s fifty-year career was defined by high-stakes reporting. He didn't just ob…
When neutrality becomes complicity: the ethics of reporting on genocideIs it possible to remain objective when witnessing a massacre? For veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour, the answer is a firm no. Her career has been defined by a controversial …
The fiery orator who ignited a revolution with a satirical storyBefore the Philippine Revolution erupted in 1896, a young man in Iloilo wrote a biting satire about a corrupt friar. This single act of literary defiance helped forge a national i…
Gilda Radner was a comedic pioneer whose greatest challenge was her own health.As an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, Gilda Radner defined a generation of sketch comedy with iconic characters like Roseanne Roseannadanna. Yet, behind the laughter,…
Henry Fonda: The Everyman Actor Who Almost Became a Journalist InsteadBefore he became a Hollywood icon, Henry Fonda was a shy, aspiring journalist who found his true calling on stage. By hiding behind scripted characters, he escaped his own tongue-…
How Joan Rivers transformed the red carpet from a PR line into a stageJoan Rivers was a pioneer who redefined celebrity journalism. By turning stiff, scripted red carpet interviews into candid, spontaneous conversations, she revolutionized how stars…- Walter Cronkite once read the news as Walter Wilcox and argued with a puppetBefore he became the most trusted man in America, Walter Cronkite called games on Kansas City radio under the name Walter Wilcox and once bantered with a lion puppet on morning te…
- Walter Lippmann gave us stereotypes and the Cold War, as wordsTwo phrases you probably use came from one newspaperman. Walter Lippmann gave stereotype its modern psychological sense in 1922 and made Cold War common currency with a 1947 book.…
William Randolph Hearst built an empire on a paper won in a gambling debtThe San Francisco Examiner came to Senator George Hearst as payment of a gambling debt. His son William, freshly expelled from Harvard, took it over in 1887 and used it as the lau…
Before the wildlife films, David Attenborough ran BBC Two and commissioned Monty PythonDavid Attenborough is known for his hushed, semi-whispered narration of the natural world, but in 1965 he became the controller of BBC Two. He scrapped its kangaroo mascot, commis…
Edward R. Murrow's famous sign-off came from Londoners parting during the BlitzIn late 1940, as German bombs fell on London each night, people said goodbye with "good night, and good luck," unsure they would meet again. Edward R. Murrow borrowed the phrase f…
Horace Greeley pushed "Go West" and built America's biggest newspaper from a lossIts first week, Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune took in $92 and spent $525. It sold for a penny, carried by newsboys, and in 1841 it faced a rival with more readers than all its…- Hunter S. Thompson retyped The Great Gatsby to learn how Fitzgerald wroteWorking as a Time magazine copy boy for $51 a week in the late 1950s, Hunter S. Thompson sat at his typewriter copying out pages of The Great Gatsby and A Farewell to Arms, trying…
Joseph Pulitzer's first news story exposed a scam he'd fallen for himselfIn late-1860s St. Louis, a young Hungarian immigrant paid a smooth-talking promoter five dollars for a promised job on a Louisiana sugar plantation. A steamboat dropped him and do…
Nellie Bly's famous pen name began as an editor's spelling mistakeElizabeth Cochran picked the pen name Nelly Bly, after a character in a popular Stephen Foster song. Her Pittsburgh editor wrote "Nellie" by mistake, and it stuck. Under that miss…