A Week in the Life of: Natasha Ghoneim
Veteran International Television and Multimedia Journalist
Welcome to "Changemakers | A Week in the Life of" – a captivating section in SYROPOTAMIA, where we shed light on the lives of inspiring individuals who are making a difference in their communities and beyond.
Join us as we explore the daily endeavors, challenges, and triumphs of these remarkable changemakers, offering a unique glimpse into their impactful journeys. From philanthropists to advocates, innovators to activists, get ready to be inspired by the transformative power of these extraordinary individuals as they navigate their week with purpose and passion.
Biography
Natasha Ghoneim is a veteran international television and multimedia journalist whose career has taken her to five continents. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and currently serves on the board of the Arab & Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA). Ghoneim is the daughter of Egyptian immigrants born and raised in the college town of Iowa City, Iowa.
You can view her work here: vimeo.com/natashaghoneim
MONDAY
Up until several months ago, a call or text in the middle of the night usually meant there was breaking news and I needed to either bolt out of bed and pack furiously to get on a plane or get in front of a camera as soon as I could to make myself representable. (To streamline the process, I got into the habit of selecting and ironing my work outfit and taking a shower before bed, even if I only had time to sleep for a few hours.) Since I stepped away from my job as an international correspondent in the spring to be more present for my ailing parents, the calls and texts now mean something much different. The text is from my mother with a request I take care of something for her at a more reasonable hour when the sun rises. By the time it does, I have already read the news lines from overnight and written the email my mother requested. My primary goal today is to wear my hat as a board member for the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA), founded in New York City in 2005. The week will be devoted to prepping the almost 150 awards submissions for the 2nd annual AMEJA Awards. There are some incredible entries. One quote is embedded in my mind: “The most vulnerable person in America in terms of having their civil rights denied outright or circumscribed is a Muslim Arab who defends Palestinian rights.”
TUESDAY
I am not a fan of Zoom. I never stopped reporting in the field during the pandemic when the use of Zoom peaked, even when many of my fellow reporters “worked from home.” So, my use of Zoom continues to thankfully be quite limited and mostly confined to my work with AMEJA. This morning, one of my fellow board members and I had a Zoom call with the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS). ACCESS was founded in Dearborn, Michigan in 1971 by a group of volunteers with a mission to assist Arab American immigrants. It is now the largest Arab American non-profit in the United States. So, when someone from ACCESS reached out to AMEJA to learn more about our mission and explore areas of possible collaboration and support, I knew it was a wonderful opportunity. One of the challenges I see with the Arab American community at large is how best to unify disparate organizations and work toward a common goal. At AMEJA, we’re grappling with how to reach more members of our community and inspire them to join us and support the vital work we’re doing. In the afternoon, I had a meditation coaching session with an old New York news director friend who turned her lifelong practice & passion into a business. Journalists tend to lead stressful lives and meditation is just one of the methods I’ve used to cope. While covering the earthquake in Turkey earlier this year, during brief breaks of live coverage, I would sit alone in our crew SUV and set a timer on my mobile. With my eyes closed, headphones on to mute the ambient noise, and hands on my lap, I focused on inhaling and exhaling as deeply as possible for five to ten minutes. My meditation coach’s mantra for this session was to “Be in my body. Feel my feelings. And allow your body, not your mind to drive the bus.”
WEDNESDAY
It’s time to update my professional headshot which I utilize for my online presence. A morning thunderstorm means my Egyptian locks look like a cartoon character just electrocuted. A blowout from the salon at the end of the block is still no match. But the hair stylist has given me a much needed assist. The photographer is a woman I’ve been working with for several years. She’s an immigrant from Ireland. As she shoots, we talk about how she’s ensuring her children are tied to their extended family, the country & their cultural heritage and she asks me about my experience as the daughter of Egyptian immigrants. It’s another reminder of how lucky my brother and I are to have solid ties to Egypt and our extended family. I hope we are transmitting our Egyptian pride to his two daughters who are a splendid mix of Irish and Polish genes as well. Early on in the broadcast industry, I was advised to downplay my Egyptian-American identity One well-meaning mentor even advised me to “sanitize my last name to something like Smith”. Later, news directors would tell my agents that they didn’t “need Arab Americans” on their staff. A few more “enlightened” ones even described me as having a “catch-all minority look.” I ignored all that nonsense. The best piece of advice I have ever been given is to just be myself. Being authentic. Being a human being first. These have been my guiding principles throughout my reporting career, and I have been told that comes through on the screen.
THURSDAY
I have the honor of meeting a trailblazer in journalism. Her name is Jennifer Kho and she is the executive editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, the first Asian American woman to lead a major American newspaper. She is also the president of the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS), a 37-year-old non-profit dedicated to empowering and supporting women in journalism. We slip into an easy rapport & swap stories. I told her about my first two job interviews after graduating from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Both began with interviews over the phone and emailed resumes. My VHS tape (remember those) clearly did not arrive prior to our in-person interview. The white male news director at a station in Alexandria Minnesota, looked flustered upon seeing me. He told me he had a conflict and could not meet with me anytime that day or the day after. The second white male news director at a television station in Quincy, Illinois literally told me “We don’t have a place for someone like you in our newsroom.” That day my mother had accompanied me to this small Mississippi River town we had never heard of a few hours away from my hometown, Iowa City, Iowa. I walked outside to the nearby square where my mom was sitting on a bench waiting for me and cried. My mother looked across the street, spotted a marquee with the call letters of another television station, and encouraged me to stop in. It was around lunchtime and the secretary was a Black woman who looked at me knowingly as I explained I had just had an interview at the rival station across the street. A few months later, a news director named John Smith of KHQA-TV called me and offered me my first job. Thus began my career as a broadcast journalist.
FRIDAY
Today is devoted to connecting my disparate networks and in doing so, supporting small newspapers in America. I am a native of Iowa City, Iowa and I have watched the local newspaper I once delivered as a child, the Iowa City Press-Citizen, suffer through successive waves of cutbacks. Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa, one of the largest teaching hospitals in the Midwest, the Iowa Writers Workshop, and is A UNESCO city of literature. It is ringed by farmland. The city and surrounding rural communities deserve robust news coverage and investigative reporting. An editor at The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire reached out to the AMEJA board to see if any of our members would be interested in attending an all-expenses paid national summit it co-hosts called “Radically Rural”. It “features programming and inspiration for small communities throughout the country” and the goal is to reach journalists, especially those of color, working in rural areas and historically underserved communities. I share with our AMEJA membership and connect the editor with my contact at the Chicago-Sun Times and Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS) to ensure they get the best candidates. I received an email from a fellow Columbia grad and an old friend. He is a professor of journalism at Depauw University in Indiana and has invited me to speak to his students this fall. I immediately agree. Since I began working in television I have frequently spoken to students. Through the decades. I have become hyper-aware that meeting a brown woman and daughter of immigrants reporting on first American and then international television, has helped expand young people’s minds of what is possible, in a way that surpasses a career in journalism. AMEJA is in the process of launching a mentorship program. I am thrilled that the board will be able to continue to fulfill our mission to guide, fortify, and offer solidarity to Arab and Middle Eastern journalists.
SATURDAY
Today, I was propelled back to my days as a “paper girl” for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. It’s hard to imagine at this moment, but at 7 years old I was delivering the afternoon newspaper to about 30 homes in my neighborhood. On Wednesdays, the newspapers were stuffed with grocery & furniture store ads making them several inches thick. My scrawny arms could barely lift the canvas newspaper bag. I wonder if my love for journalism took root then. What I do know, is the Ghoneims have always been a news family. Newspapers were read and the evening newscast was watched daily. We frequently discussed current events. At 89, my father’s love of the tactile sensation of flipping through the newspaper and the crinkly sound of the paper as he does it is something I ensure is fulfilled. On this day he tells me the Wall Street Journal has not been delivered. In fact, it hasn’t been delivered for several days. (It’s an ongoing issue.) I remind him that on the rare occasion when I neglected to drop the newspaper in someone’s mailbox or inside the screen door (customers had their preferences), my mother would usually get a disgruntled phone call. I would be dispatched to the house like a paramedic responding to a 9-1-1 call, ringing the doorbell, and offering an apology with a smile, along with the newspaper. After my Wall Street Journal customer service experience, I registered for the 2023 Journalism & Women Symposium CAMP in Chicago. Later, I phoned a former Al Jazeera America colleague and friend who has also worked as a producer extraordinaire for CNN and Vice. I encouraged her to come visit me in Chicago and attend the event. She talks to me about a fascinating podcast series she’s working on which is a Detroit-based story. I worked at WDIV-TV, the NBC affiliate in Detroit for three years and am happy that I might be able to connect her with a former source who I am in touch with. I have worked in nine newsrooms over the course of my career. Despite appearing near the top of most distrusted professions lists, journalism has afforded me perspectives and experiences that as difficult as they may have been in the moment, have been blessedly enriching. So few can say the same.
SUNDAY
Journalists dig up great stories not only from cultivating sources but also from keen observation, listening, and talking to people as they go about their lives. Sunday is a brunch and try-to-carve-out-some-fun day. It also ends up being devoted to supporting small local businesses. My husband and I met a friend and her partner. The partner is a lifelong Chicagoan and as I peppered him with questions about his childhood and how the neighborhood he grew up in has transformed, the seeds of a few possible story ideas were planted in my head.
We pop over to a farmer’s market which this vegetarian especially loves. It has a section devoted to clothing designers. I periodically go on shopping fasts to reject materialistic culture. When I do buy something, I always check the “MADE IN” label first. If the country has a history of imprisoning journalists and activists or oppressing ethnic and religious minorities, that item is not making it home with me. I am focused more than ever on looking for those “MADE IN THE USA” items.
At the end of our outing, my husband and I meet a guitarist from a rock band and we strike up an interesting conversation as one typically does when they sit at the bar of a hip neighborhood restaurant and engage with the staff. (Many bartenders moonlight to pay the bills while they pursue their creative passions.) When the guitarist/bartender finds out I’m Egyptian American, he shares that he has Moroccan Jewish ancestry. He tells us his trip to Israel as an 11-year-old, transformed his view of the Palestinians’ plight. I will never be the life of the party, but I likely will be the best listener. I love hearing people’s stories. All of us have compelling ones to share. In those stories, I am often reminded of the universality of our lived experiences.
SYROPOTAMIA thanks Natasha Ghoneim for submitting her detailed account of the week for our Changemaker’s section. We welcome recommendations from our readers for Arab American changemakers they believe should be featured in this section.