Reporter roving to Lynchburg

By Darrell Laurant

Published: March 23, 2008

John Burnett’s position with National Public Radio is described as “roving reporter.” Which is appropriate, because later this week, he’ll be roving all over Lynchburg.
“I said yes, and they sort of ran with it,” said Burnett good-humoredly about his multitude of upcoming Hill City appearances.
There’s a reception at Riverviews on Wednesday night (6-7:30). The next day, he’s visiting a couple of classes at Lynchburg College, then doing a reading in the Daura Gallery (2:30), followed by a dinner with LC faculty and invited guests and a 7:30 presentation in LC’s Hall Campus Center.
“I’ve never been to Lynchburg,” Burnett said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
He has, however, been just about everywhere else. Based in Austin, Texas, Burnett has reported from 25 countries during his 23 years with NPR. He has been embedded (with a Marine company during the beginnings of the Iraq war in 2003), endangered (trying to get as close to the epicenter of the Latin American cocaine trade without being shot) and enlightened (almost constantly).
“There is no greater skeleton key to the world than journalism,” he once said.
Burnett’s talk at LC will concern the environment, just one of his many interests. His latest South of the Border gig had him in Costa Rica, where the country’s government has vowed to become carbon neutral (consuming as much carbon dioxide as it emits) by 2021.
“That’s quite an ambitious undertaking for a country that size,” Burnett said. “It makes us realize how far we have to go.”
From Burnett’s perspective, that includes the drug problem in the U.S., as well.
“We tend to focus on all the evil-doers in Central America and Colombia,” he said, “but they’ll tell you that they wouldn’t be doing this if it were not for the huge appetite for cocaine in this country. We need to do more to stop the demand.”
Just this year, Burnett said, a new kind of inhaled heroin known as “cheese heroin” surfaced in Dallas, spawning addicts as young as 9.
Burnett does his drug reporting, he said, “by starting at the edges, hanging out, keeping your ears open.”
It would be a little difficult for him to pose as the average Mexican or Colombian, however — Burnett is 6-foot-7 (he once filed a report from Pakistan about being “The tallest American at a ‘Death to America’ rally”).
Like all journalists, Burnett struggles with the difficulties of remaining an unbiased observer.
“There’s a place for anger in journalism,” he said, “and there’s a time when you can get empathetic, but you can never forget who you are.”
He remembers walking the blighted streets of New Orleans post-Katrina and being asked for rides and food and favors by the wandering, suddenly homeless
residents.
“It really made me wonder what good we were doing there by gathering information for a story,” he said.
Not surprisingly, Burnett feels NPR occupies a crucial place in the media pantheon.
“We offer four hours of news a day,” he said. “Our stories can be longer and more analytical, because we’re not dependent on ratings or advertising. It’s a wonderful place to be, and this is the golden age of public radio.”
One of the distinctive things about NPR is its international coverage. For the most part, the rest of the American media (including newspapers) tends to cover other countries only when something bad happens there — a coup, an earthquake, a famine — and fails to convey any sense of what it’s like to live in that place.
As for Burnett, his world travels always bring him back to his favorite place in the world.
“I’m a UT (University of Texas) graduate,” he said, “and the dream of every UT graduate is to some day get back to Austin.”
Did I mention that he also plays blues harmonica? Maybe Lynchburg College can work a concert into his schedule.