FISHBONES, POPES, CORKS, COBBLESTONES AND AIRCRAFT CARRIERS Adventures with AP cameraman Gianfranco Stara This week my colleague Gianfranco Stara is retiring after 30 years working for the Associated Press. Gianfranco Stara and I were hired together in October of 1994 to open the AP Television office in Rome. He was the cameraman, and in case …
ADVENTURES WITH ASSOCIATED PRESS CAMERAMAN GIANFRANCO STARA Read More »
Dear Blog Readers, After a hiatus of over a year, I am back, more or less. The last post I wrote was on March 3rd, 2020, shortly before Italy went into a national lockdown on March 9th. It is strange to look back at those photos in the last post, Rome in the Time of …
Dear Blog Readers – this is my lengthy, diary-like, behind-the-scenes account of covering the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Italy one week ago. It will probably be boring to many people but it does give a good idea of how we cover a major news story. As on many big news stories there were moments …
Covering the Earthquake in Italy for AP Television Read More »
Let me tell all you blog readers where I was feeling the “Bern” – all up and down my right arm as I desperately tried to keep our boom microphone high in the air above Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders as he gave a statement nearly squashed by dozens of journalists, photographers and camerapersons against …
In one day the Pope went behind the walls of Cereso N. 3, one of the more violent, dangerous prisons in the world where he hugged prisoners and urged them to “write a new story” and “move forward,” telling them that “we know what is done, is done.” He prayed before the imposing border fence …
Fences, Barbed Wire and Walls – In Juarez with Pope Francis Read More »
Dear Blog Readers — You may all be getting terribly bored with my Mexico posts but at this point I am completing them as a diary for myself. Otherwise I will get involved in other news and forget all the details of this incredible trip. On his fifth day in Mexico, the Pope traveled to …
Dear Blog Readers – I am just back from Pope Francis’ six-day trip to Mexico and have so much material – speeches, photos, videos, and memories–that it will be hard to boil it down into one blog post. So it is going to be a two-part series and it is mostly going to be a …
Dear Blog Readers – After spending nearly a week in Sicily working on the migrant story this month, I had so much material for a blog post, but no energy left to write it, so this post will be brief. The AP team was working around the clock covering ships arriving in the port of …