CNN: Special Investigations Unit
January
The CNN: Special Investigations Unit has produced a five-part American Morning package on Martin Luther King, "MLK: The Words that Changed a Nation", hosted by Soledad.

She had an exclusive look at the “King Papers” – a never-before view of Martin Luther King’s private writings, notes and teachings and this archive, housed in Morehouse College's Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, was featured in the series.

O’Brien interviewed Dr. King’s contemporaries and looked at milestone events of the civil rights movement. Beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott following the arrest of Rosa Parks and ending with King’s assassination in 1968, the series examines King’s life through his writings and through interviews with several eyewitnesses to history, including former U.N. Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and activist Dorothy Cotton among others.

Soledad describes how King began writing “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on the edges of newspapers smuggled out of jail by his attorney, Clarence Jones. The documentary reveals, too, how King’s “I Have A Dream” speech was actually an evolving speech King had developed over several years. Viewers may be surprised to learn that the written copy of the remarks King carried with him to the Lincoln Memorial was titled, “Normalcy – Never Again,” and did not contain the words, “I have a dream.” King ad-libbed this part of his speech before the crowd of more than 250,000 at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  more information

Watch a video excerpt at AOL VIDEO - The 'dream' that almost wasn't - CNN's Soledad O'Brien looks at how Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I have a dream' speech was almost scrapped.

Interviewed by Nicol Jenkins

The appearance was part of Lynn University’s Dively Frontiers in Globalization Luncheon Lecture Series. President Kevin Ross said the 15-year program’s goal is to bring “role models” to the students and faculty.

Soledad talked about landing an internship at WBZTV in Boston in 1988 after studying English and American Literature at Harvard.
“For my first job I was removing staples from the bulletin board in the newsroom. Then I was promoted to coffee fetching. After paying $150,000 for my education at Harvard, my parents were dismayed and had visions that I might spend the rest of my life there. But I loved it. I loved being in the newsroom and covering news. I decided that was what I wanted to do.”

On her ethnic background (Her mother is black and Cuban and her father is white and Australian.)

“One said they needed a black reporter and I was too light. Another thought my name was too tricky. i was told I was not ethnic enough or too ethnic all in 48 hours. I turned to my mom for advice and she said ‘most people are idiots and if you listen to them then you are an idiot. Don’t let them shape your life."

O’Brien has a long list of interviews and stories, but the ones she finds most touching were those told by survivors—some of which told by victims of the tsunami in Thailand and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

“The most difficult thing about the story was the stories these people had to tell,” she said. One such heartbreaking tale was told by a mother who said she had to choose which child to let go of because she couldn’t hold both during the tsunami. Another was that of seven children separated from parents for months due to Hurricane Katrina. “At the moment you feel gratitude and challenged to be able to tell the story accurately. These are stories of humanity.

“While doing the interviews [in Louisiana], it was so baffling that they had no idea that a major hurricane was coming. And what was most troubling was the sense that they lied. They said there was help on the way and the poor and black were desperate to get this assistance."

Soledad said that she discovered that survivors had three characteristics.

“They always have another plan, they have a positive attitude, and they always have the thought that they can save themselves instead of thinking they have to wait for people to save them."

“My job is to get both sides and point out the hypocrisy,” she said. “I love the opportunity to tell the really good stories and to bring them to life for other people.”

SOURCE: Boca Raton News

Soledad talks about being a mother of four, race, Hurricane Katrina, tech, Katie Couric, Elizabeth Vargas and her best on-air interview.   Read the full article

EXCERPTS
On how the media has been covering Katie Couric:
It's been really fascinating how many stories focus on her outfits. That has been a little surprising to me. I think the American public truly does not care. I think people understand that you dress up like Peter Pan on Halloween because that's what The Today Show did. It's not indicative of what kind of journalist she is. For journalists to write about that was surprising because I don't think your average person is running around saying, "How can someone who dressed up as Peter Pan report hard hitting news?" I think journalists made a much bigger deal about it. I don't think people critique her outfits. I think journalists are way off on this.

Are the networks doing enough to promote a racially diverse workplace?
My answer is I think everybody could do more to hire more people of color. I truly believe you get a wider range of stories coming to you when you have a real diversity of who you're talking to in your editorial meeting. I think everybody could do a better job of that.

What do you think of ABC News' handling of Elizabeth Vargas' pregnancy and how that became part of the story of her stepping down from her co-anchor position on the evening news?
What I resent the most out of all of that is the sense that all pregnant women or all women having children should all respond in the same way. One side says, "You should all suck it up and march on and make it work." The other side says, "You'd be a much better mother if you'd just stay home and raise those children." The truth is, for every person it's an individual decision. Elizabeth, I'm sure, has ten more reasons than we know about for the decision she made. It's so much more complicated than "good mommy, bad mommy."

How do you manage to do your job and raise four kids?
Some days I think, "Wouldn't it be nice to just stay home and bring everybody to school?" Then I spend a couple of days bringing everybody to school and I think, "Oh God, I can't wait to get back to the office. I exhausted." For most of us, you just figure it out. Some days you do more and some days you do less. I want to cover the big story but I also want to go to the sing-along at kindergarten. How do you balance? That, to me, is hard and I don't think people articulate that well yet.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien was given the honorary President's Award for her work as a journalist. She was cited for ongoing initiatives such as the "Children of the Storm," series which provided video cameras to young Hurricane Katrina survivors so that they could tell their stories of trial and triumph in their own words and images.

Honorary recognition also included Bill Cosby's induction into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame, and the Chairman's Award to musician and activist, Bono of the rock group U2. Celebrities nominated for The 38th NAACP Image Awards include, among others, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Penelope Cruz, Laurence Fishburne, Jamie Foxx, Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Jay-Z, Queen Latifah, Mo’Nique, Eddie Murphy, Barack Obama, Prince, Lionel Richie, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and Forest Whitaker.

This star-studded salute, hosted by LL Cool J, is the premier event that celebrates the achievements of people of color in the arts and sciences. This is the first time the show was televised live,

When the President's Award was presented to Soledad, she was emotional on stage and later backstage.

Asked backstage how she maintains a balance between her personal and professional lives: "How do you get balance? I don’t have balance. I have complete chaos at home,” she laughs backstage, hoisting her trophy. “I think that anyone who has four small children — 6, 4 and [2-year-old] twins — then you have chaos. But I have two things that I really, really love. And that’s my family — my children and my husband — and my job. I feel very blessed.”

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

Modern Mom TV
March 19

ModernMom.com, an online resource for busy moms announced the "soft launch" of Modern Mom TV. The new Video Channel will launch officially in April, and the site's pilot segment which premiered on March 7th, has already garnered more than 5,000 views. Featuring new original programming, the channel will continue with the site's mission to provide up-to-the-minute, yet practical guidance for moms looking to find balance.

As part of a New Year's resolution to cook dinner more often and order less takeout, and clean-up their snacking habits with healthier options, Soledad worked with food & cooking contributor Cat Cora (AKA Food Network's Iron Chef) who cleaned out Soledad's kitchen, substituted healthy staples and snacks and gave her some healthy alternatives to their usual dinner choices.

Making a family favorite - tacos - Cat lightened up the typical taco recipe.

View video of Soledad's snack cabinet and Watch her cooking

Tragedy at Virginia Tech
April 16

Just 3 days after her move from anchoring American Morning, Soledad had to cover what has become the worst mass shooting in American history. A lone gunman who killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech on an otherwise ordinary spring morning in Blacksburg, Va., before turning the weapon upon himself.

Soledad reported on the tragic events for an hour-long CNN: Special Investigations Unit documentary, " Massacre at Virginia Tech" which first aired on April 21.

The documentary covered a minute-by-minute account of the campus rampage as Soledad discussed how and why the events happened and whether they could have been prevented.

SCHENECTADY - Soledad O'Brien, co-anchor of CNN's popular American Morning, spoke at Union College in New York. Her talk, "Diversity: On television, behind the scenes and in our lives," was part of the Presidential Forum on Diversity.

Life away from 'Morning' anchor desk still hectic for CNN's O'Brien
May 13, 2007

Inside TV & Radio's Tim Cuprisin talked on the phone with Soledad and discovered she's keeping more normal hours these days, a month after leaving the anchor desk she shared with Miles O'Brien on American Morning. Slightly more normal.

"I was in the office today at 5 in the morning," O'Brien said during a phone conversation last week, as she talked about some of the seven documentaries she's working on in her new assignment at the news channel.

For those questioning her status at CNN, she said she's not going anywhere. "They re-upped me and gave me a promotion," she said.

Was the change a surprise? "The timing was, a little bit," she admitted. "But I knew it was coming. "I'm a silver-lining kind of person, which means that I always think of change as opportunity. And this was a great change, it was a promotion for me."

Among the projects she's in the middle of is "Children of the Storm," a documentary on the group of young survivors of Hurricane Katrina who were given video cameras to record what is unfolding around them. That story is one of the reasons O'Brien has been out on the lecture circuit.

"After Hurricane Katrina and after the tsunami (in 2004 in Thailand, which she also covered), I found it really therapeutic to run around and talk about those experiences," she explained. "I like to do it if the audience is right. I like to talk to female audiences; I like to talk to working moms. I like talking to people who are students who are in transition and trying to figure out what to do, because I think my advice, and just my story, is kind of relevant."

O'Brien's story includes a biracial background - an Afro-Cuban mom and a dad of Irish descent from Australia - and she laughed as she recalled how it came up once when a young woman was interviewing her. "She was half-Japanese and half-white, and she said to me, 'You know, you're a role model for me. People tell me I'm a young Soledad O'Brien.' "I looked at her and said, 'Sweetie, I'm the young Soledad O'Brien.' "

Wayuu Taya - which translates as "I'm indigenous" - was founded five years ago by supermodel Patricia Velasquez to help the native people of her homeland of Venezuela.

Supermodel Iman hosted this year's fund-raiser, where Velasquez will be joined by Petra Nemcova, Ford Models founder Eileen Ford and CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien as emcee.

Velasquez, who is also a good-will ambassador for UNESCO, was diplomatic and said, "We are not political. We do the best we can no matter who is in charge."

Director SPIKE LEE gave students in New Orleans the chance to tell their own  stories as filmmakers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The filmmaker told the high school children to do this "for the world". The footage is being aired to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy this August.

"Let them know what's happening down here, that everything isn't okey-dokey. You're doing this for the world. Remember it's not just for yourself."

Eleven students were told to film the trials and tribulations of their lives to show the full extent of the hurricane's effects. They were also asked to share their thoughts on how the city is recovering and their future in New Orleans.

Soledad O'Brien is the, co-host of the special series.

"We picked kids who represented a lot of different parts of the city. We really wanted to get a good cross-section, " she said

Lee, who also directed "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," a four-hour documentary chronicling the Katrina disaster, handed video cameras to New Orleans area high school students and told them to capture their lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for the world to see.

The teens' footage was on air monthly as part of a special CNN series "Children of the Storm" and concluded in August.

On Saturday, May 19th, Soledad O’Brien gave the keynote address at the Undergraduate Commencement at Bryant University and was presented with a Doctor of Human Letters honorary degree.

On May 26, she told Cornell University's Class of 2007 to ignore critics and naysayers and to define themselves on their own terms during her address at Senior Convocation.

O'Brien began her speech at Cornell by stating that she does not believe in advice.

After having told her mother about racially insensitive comments she received, her mother said, "Lovey, most people are idiots."

"And that was the most truthful advice I ever got," O'Brien said.

O'Brien then spoke about how her parents met as graduate students at Johns Hopkins University in the 1950s. Both went to mass daily; her mother, an Afro-Cuban immigrant, would walk and her father, an Australian of Irish descent, would drive until her father offered her mother a ride. And from that point — after the ice was broken — the two went around to "restaurant after restaurant" in Baltimore. None would seat, let alone serve, an interracial couple. O'Brien's mother ended up making O'Brien's father dinner.

"She would tell this story to me and my brothers and sisters not to talk about the injustice of segregation and discrimination, but to say that if you can cook, you can get a man," O'Brien said. "We saw that it wasn't really about cooking, though."

As an interracial couple, her parents could not be married in Maryland.
O'Brien used this anecdote to bridge into discussing how the class of 2007 "should not let other people define them."

"There are so many people who want to weigh in on your life and define success for you, but you have to follow your own heart," O'Brien said. "Don't worry about finding a job, find your passion — there are a zillion paths to success."

O'Brien's said that the interviews she conducts almost every day as a journalist have shown how "ordinary people who do extraordinary things can teach people more about life than stars, millionaires and politicians."

After her speech, O'Brien was awarded the Cornell medallion.

Click here for more from the Cornell event

CNN's Soledad O'brien spoke at the fourth installment of the Smart Talk Women's Lecture Series in Iowa about being a mom of four while juggling a career in cable news:

O'Brien was candid about her life on and off the CNN set - despite the fact that being a mom of four and television journalist isn't always glamorous.

"I don't have it all, I don't want to. I don't cook much. In fact, I like saying, 'I didn't make it, but I made it happen,' " she said to a roar of approval from the audience.
"I don't go out at night; I go to bed at 9 p.m. And I haven't seen a movie that didn't star a cartoon character in the past 10 years, but that's OK. If we'd stop judging ourselves and stop judging others, we'd make some progress on the things that matter to us, both male and female."

Source: http://desmoinesregister.com

"Equal parts Lois Lane and Superwoman, Soledad O'Brien, co-anchor on CNN's flagship morning program, "American Morning," a mother of four and winner of the 2007 NAACP President's Award, is quite charming to boot. Selected by Rolling Out to be featured on the cover of its first Women in Media issue, O'Brien kindly obliged less than three days after the request was made, putting an end to anxiety that we would have to feature a man on the last March cover during National Women's History Month."

full story at http://www.rollingout.com

"CNN: Special Investigations Unit" is a new long-form investigative series, airing Saturdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET, that will feature CNN's top correspondents delivering in-depth hours on pressing issues currently in the news.

"CNN: Special Investigations Unit" will utilize the reporting of anchors Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, correspondents John Roberts, John King, Candy Crowley, Drew Griffin and others to offer a strong brand of enterprise investigative reports.

American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) announced the 2007 winners of the annual Gracie Awards at a black-tie Gala on June 18.

This year's national winners include NBC's "30 Rock"'s Tina Fey, CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien, CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier, Oxygen's "Campus Ladies" and HBO's Wanda Sykes and ABC Radio Network's Satellite Sisters.

"The Gracies' recognition of exemplary programming inspires excellence in all facets of electronic media. This year's list of winners is a reflection of the depth of the growing talent serving our industry," stated 2007 Chair of AWRT, Mary Bennett, who also serves as Executive VP/Marketing for the Radio Advertising Bureau.

O'Brien was cited for her reporting from Cyprus on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, as well as her reports from the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina 'children' share emotional stories of New Orleans
August

In an online piece written by Soledad for the CNN " Behind the Scenes" series, she shares her experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events.

This piece talks about her work with young people who videotaped their stories in post-Katrina New Orleans.

read full article and see video clips

NAACP 98th Annual Convention
July

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) 98th Annual Convention was held this month in Detroit.

The keynote addresses were given by NAACP National Board of Directors Chairman Julian Bond and former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton.

The final plenary session, which was moderated by Soledad O'Brien and CBS News' Russ Mitchell, had invited all of the current Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to participate in an open forum discussion.

CNN featured an hour long series of interviews sponsored by the religious group Sojourners with 3 of the Democratic Presidential hopefuls.

Each received 15 minutes of air time to discuss their faith in individual interviews. John Edwards, Barack Obama, and then Hillary Clinton, were interviewed by Soledad O'Brien for CNN. Soledad stated that the intent of the program was to let the candidates show "how much of a role faith plays" in their lives and politics.

Soledad was a presenter at the 2007 Emmy Awards for achievement in television.

Soledad's continuing interest in education has led The After-School Corporation to elect her to their Board of Directors. TASC is a a nonprofit organization which has helped more than 250,000 children over nine years by supporting after-school programs that operate inside New York City schools each day school is in session, from 3 to 6 PM.

Soledad is quoted on their website as saying, "As a journalist, I have had multiple opportunities to report on inequity in this country and around the globe. As a mother of four children, I'm well aware of this critical aspect of kids' learning, growth and development. My own kids have flourished in their after-school programs, which have encouraged them to explore new things, challenge themselves and just have fun. Serving on the TASC board is an honor for me, both as a journalist and a mom."

Soledad was the featured speaker at the 11th annual Bishop's Dinner for Catholic education at the Sioux City Convention Center.

She related stories of her parents, her young family and her vocation as a journalist. O'Brien delighted the crowd with stories of her mother in particular.
"My mother is not a warm, fuzzy," she confessed. "She's more of a tough-nut immigrant, whose best advice to me was: 'Most people are idiots.'" Since interracial marriage was illegal in Baltimore, Md., O'Brien's parents married in 1958 in Washington, D.C.

The fifth of six children, O'Brien admitted she too has experienced discrimination in job hunting. "My first job interview was in Massachusetts and the manager told me I didn't look 'black' enough," she said. "I called my mother and cried and she told me, 'Lovey, get over it.' "At another job interview they felt 'Soledad' was too difficult a name and would I consider changing it," O'Brien continued. "I told them my full name was Maria de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien, which means The Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude, and I wasn't changing it. I called my mother crying again, and she again told me to get over it."

She referred to her job in the field of journalism as one of "service" and "inspiration." "I'm inspired everyday by people and I let my daughters know that," she said. "No matter how tired I am, an interview will put into perspective" how important the job can be.

The faith of individuals provided another source of awe for the 41-year-old Harvard graduate.
"It's easy to be awed by the big stories like the war in Iraq or Hurricane Katrina or the tsunami," she stressed. "It's the stories of people in difficulty that move me."
O'Brien has reported hour-long documentaries and in-depth reports of on-going and breaking news stories. In 1998, she traveled to Cuba to cover Pope John Paul II's historic visit. She recalled that people thought the visit would be a turning point for those who wanted to practice their religion freely.
"I was looking for my mother's old apartment and had a chance to talk with some people in the building," she said. "They asked me, 'What is it like to practice your religion?' and I had never thought about that. It amazed me." O'Brien said now that she is a mother, she is more cognizant of the message children receive from adults.
"What values of life do we live and not just state," she asked. "And what values as a nation do we have? It's both terrifying and freeing to realize the future is in our hands."

O'Brien quoted President John F. Kennedy's reference that "the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality."
"People willing to be a lone voice even when it's not OK is important," she said. "People often define you by your job," she noted. "Jobs come and go. What defines you as a human being is more important."    

Source: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com

At Stony Brook Uiniversity
October

“I don’t mind when people say they don’t trust the news,” O’Brien said at the Oct. 3 lecture. “They should doubt a lot.” O’Brien said she sometimes has issues herself.

“I used to believe everything in The New York Times,” O’Brien said. But as she covered more assignments with Times reporters, O’Brien said, she said found herself thinking, “Well, I wouldn’t have put it that way” upon reading accounts in the newspaper.

O’Brien made clear, however, that she likes “how there’s many different voices and perspectives” available to news consumers. “Inherently for society, I think it’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” she said.

The definition of “news” varies, she said, and is subject to interpretation. “It troubles me when people say, ‘This is news.’ I think it’s a wide range,” O’Brien said.

Reporting is an “awesome responsibility” that demands preparation, honesty and an objective approach, O’Brien said. “My job is to ask questions, and I don’t let my opinions influence my stories,” she said. “Why do people want to know my opinion?”

Emcees Charity Event
November

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and NBC’s Hoda Kotb were celebrity emcees for the Hearts of Gold’s Fall Fundraising Gala, “La Dolce Vita,” on November 8.

Hearts of Gold is a group that Soledad also made a beneficiary of her Celebrity Jeopardy winnings in 2006.

Soledad is Keynote Speaker at Binghamton
December

At Binghamton University's fall commencement, Soledad O'Brien told students that if she was graduating that day she would like " a great picture where I look really happy and I'm really laughing with a bunch of my good friends." One thousand students graduated at this inaugural fall commencement. Soledad, a Harvard University alum, was the keynote speaker and was awarded the University Medal - the highest honor the University can bestow.