RIAS group on discovery tours in Washington DC, New York, across USA
A group of 11 broadcast journalists from Germany are in the midst of a three-week exchange program to the United States. The best and brightest of German broadcasting spent a whirlwind week in Washington DC with visits to the White House, ZDF Television, WAMU public radio, Der Spiegel, Deutsche Welle, Pew Research and the German Embassy among others. Some of the guest speakers included Ken Weinstein (Hudson Institute), Jeff Mason (White House Correspondent Reuters), David Bruns (Washington Post), James Rosen (Newsmax), Larry Miller (USA9), Esther Ciammachilli (WAMU), Ines Pohl (DW), JJ Green (WTOP) and Scott Neuman (NPR).
The group then traveled to New York for another full week of appointments, starting off with a rousing service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church with its famous choir in Harlem, followed by talks with WNBC (Michael Gargiulo), NBC (Adam Reiss), Michael Cohen, Black Lives Matter New York co-founder Chivona Renee Newsome and New Amsterdam News publisher/editor Elinor Tatum. They also visited the Hasidic Jewish section of Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn on a walking tour with Frida Vizel, the Goethe Institute for a talk with Jörg Schumacher, with Bill Whitaker of CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and German Consul General David Gill along with Ambassador Olof Skoog, head of the European Union delegation at the UN.
With coronavirus restrictions in New York being gradually lifted, the group was able to get inside Bloomberg News for a talk and tour from Michael Lysak — getting the chance to see former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg sitting and working at his small desk in the middle of the newsroom like everyone else around him. The German journalists also learned more about efforts to fight and stop hate crime in the United States with Scott Richman of the Anti-Defamation League and learned more about crisis communication from Juda Engelmayer at the famous Katz’s deli. The group also met David Harris of the AJC, Hendrik Hinzel at Vice and Clare Toeniskoetter of the New York Times podcast The Daily.
Two journalists, who speak Russian, that were planning to take part in the program were forced to postpone their participation at the last-minute due work demands connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Six members of the group are heading off for a “station week” visiting RIAS alumni from the United States at smaller stations across the United States — from Texas to South Dakota and Boston to Los Angeles. The next standard three-week RIAS program is planned for October and a one-week special program for alumni and senior editors is planned for late October in Washington DC. Please write info@darkseagreen-dog-940501.hostingersite.com for further information.
Here is a list of the March 2022 RIAS group:
Nazan Gökdemir – ZDF/Arte – Mainz/Strasbourg
Katharina Hamberger, Deutschlandfunk radio – Berlin
Theresa Greim, Bayerische Rundfunk radio Munich
Sven Christian, Spiegel TV — Berlin
Andreas Buettner, Welt TV – Berlin
Christian von Rechenberg, ZDF TV – Mainz
Nadine Bader, ARD TV – Berlin
Okka Gundel, ARD TV – Cologne, Hamburg
Nadine Jantz, Welt TV – Berlin
Carolina Chimnoy, Deutsche Welle – Washington
