Georgie Anne Geyer
Encyclopedia
Georgie Anne Geyer is an American
journalist
and columnist
for the Universal Press Syndicate
. Her columns focus on foreign affairs
issues and appear in approximately 120 newspapers in North
and South America
. She is the author of several books, including a biography
of Fidel Castro
.
Geyer was born in Chicago
. She graduated from the Medill School of Journalism
at Northwestern University
in 1956, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega
sorority. She attended the University of Vienna
on a Fulbright Scholarship. She speaks Spanish
, Portuguese
, German
, and Russian
.
Her first job was with the Chicago Southtown Economist. From 1959 to 1974, Geyer was a reporter for the now-defunct Chicago Daily News
, where she worked from society reporting to the news desk and eventually foreign correspondent. After leaving the paper, she began her syndicated column.
In 1973, she was the first Western reporter to interview Saddam Hussein
, then Vice President of Iraq. She also interviewed Yasser Arafat
, Anwar Sadat
, King Hussein of Jordan
, Muammar al-Gaddafi
, and the Ayatollah Khomeini. She reported on rebels in the Dominican Republic
, was held by authorities in Angola
for her reporting during civil war, and was threatened with death by the White Hand death squads in Guatemala
.
Geyer has more than 21 honorary degrees, including three from Northwestern alone.
. They contacted the editor of the Chicago Tribune, the newspaper which ran the column. He told CAMERA that Geyer used a press release from the Islamic Association for Palestine as her source.
IAP claimed in turn that Ariel Sharon made the claim in a broadcast on an Israeli radio station, Kol Yisrael
. Kol Yisrael denied that any such broadcast occurred, and the statement could not be substantiated by any independent news source. CAMERA
concluded that it was fabricated. The Chicago Tribune issued a correction, stating that the quote had been used in Palestinian press but was otherwise unconfirmed.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
for the Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate, a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, is the world's largest independent press syndicate. It distributes lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebert and News of the Weird...
. Her columns focus on foreign affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
issues and appear in approximately 120 newspapers in North
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. She is the author of several books, including a biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
.
Geyer was born in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. She graduated from the Medill School of Journalism
Medill School of Journalism
The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It has consistently been one of the top-ranked schools in Journalism in the United States...
at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in 1956, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Chi Omega is a women's fraternity founded on October 15, 1885. Currently, there are 135 chapters of Alpha Chi Omega at colleges and universities across the United States and more than 200,000 lifetime members...
sorority. She attended the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
on a Fulbright Scholarship. She speaks Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
Her first job was with the Chicago Southtown Economist. From 1959 to 1974, Geyer was a reporter for the now-defunct Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
, where she worked from society reporting to the news desk and eventually foreign correspondent. After leaving the paper, she began her syndicated column.
In 1973, she was the first Western reporter to interview Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, then Vice President of Iraq. She also interviewed Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
, Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
, King Hussein of Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
, and the Ayatollah Khomeini. She reported on rebels in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, was held by authorities in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
for her reporting during civil war, and was threatened with death by the White Hand death squads in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
.
Geyer has more than 21 honorary degrees, including three from Northwestern alone.
Journalistic controversy
In a May 10, 2002 column "Now Isn't the Time for Bush League Moves," Geyer reported, without specific attribution of the source, that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon claimed to "control America." The quote was investigated by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in AmericaCommittee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is an American non-profit pro-Israel media watchdog group. The group says it was founded in 1982 "to respond to the Washington Post's coverage of Israel's Lebanon incursion", and to respond to what it considers the media's "general...
. They contacted the editor of the Chicago Tribune, the newspaper which ran the column. He told CAMERA that Geyer used a press release from the Islamic Association for Palestine as her source.
IAP claimed in turn that Ariel Sharon made the claim in a broadcast on an Israeli radio station, Kol Yisrael
Kol Yisrael
Kol Yisrael is Israel's public domestic and international radio service, operated as a division of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.-History:...
. Kol Yisrael denied that any such broadcast occurred, and the statement could not be substantiated by any independent news source. CAMERA
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
concluded that it was fabricated. The Chicago Tribune issued a correction, stating that the quote had been used in Palestinian press but was otherwise unconfirmed.
Books
- Americans No More
- Buying the Night Flight: the Autobiography of a Woman Foreign Correspondent
- When Cats Reigned Like Kings: On the Trail of the Sacred Cats
- Guerrilla Prince (biography of Fidel CastroFidel CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
)
External links
- Biography at Universal Press Syndicate site
- Profile from Northwestern University
- Profile from the Chicago Headline Club
- Interview on C-SPANC-SPANC-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
's BooknotesBooknotesBooknotes is an American television series on the C-SPAN network hosted by Brian Lamb, which originally aired from 1989 to 2004. The format of the show is a one-hour, one-on-one interview with a non-fiction author. The series was broadcast at 8 p.m. Eastern Time each Sunday night, and was the...
in 1991 (about "Guerilla Prince" about Fidel CastroFidel CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
)