Journalist Lisa Ling speaks at UTPA

EDINBURG — Despite the myriad news outlets on television today, Americans have little opportunity to learn about the world around them, journalist Lisa Ling said Tuesday.

That is what keeps her seeking out stories ranging from the adoption of Chinese girls to the gang rape of women in the Congo.

And Americans have responded to her work. More than 9 million people watched her report on the Congo on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and more than $2.5 million poured in to organizations to help the women and children of that nation after the report aired.

“Those who say Americans don’t care (about international news), I categorically disagree with them,” Ling told the audience Tuesday at the University of Texas-Pan American’s crowded fine arts auditorium during her appearance as part of the university’s 2009-10 Distinguished Speakers Series.

Ling has spent the past two decades reporting on national and international issues, including the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan, prison gangs and environmental issues for numerous media outlets, including the National Geographic Channel, The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. She also was a co-host on ABC’s daytime television talk show The View.

The television journalist told the audience how she always dreamed of working in TV and finally got her chance as a teenager working for a local news program. But it was working for Channel One News, a program broadcasted to middle and high schools throughout the country, that opened the door to a whole new world. One of her first assignments was in 1994 covering the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan, a country she and most Americans knew little about at that time.

“I was immediately surrounded by boys … (who) were carrying weapons larger than they were,” Ling said about her initial experience arriving in the country.

Ling said she was so shaken by what she saw in Afghanistan that she was determined to tell her fellow Americans what was going on there.

The journalist took time out from her talk Tuesday to thank the audience members for their prayers and support of her younger sister Laura, also a journalist, who was captured and imprisoned along with another journalist, Euna Lee, by the North Korean government in March 2009. They were released in August that year following diplomatic efforts by former President Bill Clinton.

Before Ling took the stage, students and members of the community said they were looking forward to hearing about her travels and her thoughts on her sister’s imprisonment and release from North Korea.

“I want her job,” said Katy Schaffer, a 16-year-old student in the International Baccalaureate program at McAllen’s Lamar Academy.

Like Katy, Lupe A. Flores, a senior at UTPA, said he would like to follow in Ling’s footsteps.

“It’s a good opportunity for students like myself to see someone (who is working in the field they want to enter),” said Flores, 20.

Winter Texan Pat Julien said she has been to several of the university’s Distinguished Speakers events and has been impressed so far.

“And the fact that they’re free (to the public) is amazing,” said Julien, who spends her winters at Texas Trails RV Park in Pharr.

Now in its sixth year, the Distinguished Speakers Series brings to UTPA public figures and other individuals from diverse backgrounds who have made an impact on society. Previous speakers include former CBS anchorman Dan Rather and Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan hotel manager who helped save more than 1,200 people during that country’s genocide in the 1990s. The series is funded by student activities fees, and the events are open to the public.

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Jennifer L. Berghom covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4462.