Soledad O'Brien

In her three-hour remote TheirStory interview, Soledad O'Brien discusses growing up on Long Island, NY, attending Harvard University, and getting hired for her early jobs in journalism at WBZ in Boston, NBC Nightly News in New York, and KRON-TV in San Francisco. She recalls joining MSNBC as the anchor of The Site, working at MSNBC Morning Blend and Weekend Today, and talks about why she left NBC for CNN in 2003. She then discusses several of the major news stories she's covered throughout her career, including the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the Sandy Hook school shooting. O'Brien describes how she got into making documentaries at CNN, and talks about the successful documentary series Black in America and Latino in America. She recalls anchoring Starting Point on CNN and covering presidential elections, reveals why she left CNN in 2013, and recounts the creation of her own production company, Soledad O'Brien Productions (formerly titled Starfish Media Group). She outlines what she believes the role of a journalist is, discusses her use of Twitter, and comments on how changes in media consumption have impacted journalism. She describes the format of Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, shares where she was when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and details what pandemic production has been like. She talks about penning "A MeToo Moment for Journalists of Color" for The New York Times in July 2020 and discusses working on Disrupt & Dismantle, Black and Missing, and the podcast Murder on the Towpath. She offers advice to aspiring journalists and concludes with remarks on the value of mentors and on her greatest achievements and regrets. Jenni Matz conducted the interview on January 14, 2022.