As the host of “Erin Burnett OutFront,” do you frequently travel to report on stories? What other stories have you covered as a TV host?
One of my great passions in life is travel. It's one of the reasons I always dreamed of working at CNN. I wanted to travel to find and tell stories. Maybe that started when my mother had me keep journals on childhood trips. Covid curtailed travel for us all recently, but I have traveled the world for work and that is a great gift.
Every one of the stories I've covered has left a mark on me.
When I was in Egypt at the start of the Arab Spring, each street was protected by armed locals; there were gunshots in the air. It was unsettled, and yet at the onset there was a triumphant celebration as people reclaimed their country. I'll remember the possibility of that moment — although still unrealized — forever.
The children always change you as a reporter: We visited a Pakistani women's prison where the women were serving life sentences for small infractions. Their children were allowed to live with them until they turned 7 — then they were taken away forever. In a refugee camp along the border of Mali, where people were seeking refuge from al Qaeda terrorists, I remember Mariam. Her gaze stares out at me from the photo journal I kept of that reporting trip.
And as America faces the tragedy of Buffalo and Uvalde, I think of the sad and disgusting parade of mass shootings: standing outside a Las Vegas casino, outside a nightclub in Orlando, outside the school in Newtown, Connecticut, outside a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. As a reporter, I cannot believe we cover the same story again and again and nothing changes.
Do you anticipate returning to Ukraine?
Yes. Ukraine's story will define the world we all live in.
Switching gears a bit, tell us how you got your start as a journalist?
I got my start in journalism for one simple reason — I left jobs when they weren't the right fit. I thought I'd end up in the CIA or as an advocate, a lawyer. I considered business school. But when I stumbled into a job that was a media startup within a bigger company, I ended up having to fill a few roles: running numbers, creating marketing presentations and producing video interviews with CEOs and financial experts. I realized what I loved was asking questions. It was not work! My career became clear from there. There were many bumps along the way to my dream job at CNN but the truth is, I'm grateful for my job every day.