The Soup Cans Interview: David Muir

ABC “World News Saturday” anchor David Muir took the time out of his busy travel schedule to answer some questions from Soup Cans. Keep reading our very own exclusive to find out what it took for Muir to get where he is today, how the media helped save New Orleans, and what a Boston Red Sox fan should do in order to survive a trip to Yankee stadium.

What has been the most frightening journalistic moment for you?

One of the moments that stands out in my mind is a story we did during the Israeli war with Hezbollah. We were traveling through a northern Israeli town when we spotted a father outside on a patio playing checkers with his children. This wouldn't have been out of the ordinary had there not been katyusha rockets coming over the Lebanon border almost hourly. We stopped to ask why the father would take that chance with his children outside. He explained to us how his children's ears were trained to hear the sound of an incoming rocket before it landed and that they knew what to do. Moments later, we heard that piercing sound. The children raced for their bunker and moments later came the blast. The rocket had landed on a nearby home. It was a revealing picture of what it is like to be a child in a war zone.

After we emerged from the bunker, we visited that nearby home only to find a tearful and frightened elderly couple huddled together in the corner of their bedroom. Their home had been sliced by the rocket. They were terrified and rightly so.

Name a story you've done that you are most proud of and why.

To this day, I am still proud of our reporting in New Orleans. I remember sleeping on the floor of the Superdome as Hurricane Katrina was tearing through the city and ripping the roof off of the building, but we had no idea the real destruction was yet to come. Our visit to the Convention Center after the levees broke was so heartbreaking. I will never forget the woman who collapsed while talking to me. She was suffering from diabetic shock. A woman in the crowd of evacuees who happened to be a nurse came running to her aid. It was devastating to witness hundreds of evacuees with no food, no water and no medicine. I believe had the media not been there to expose such dire need, the help would not have arrived when it did.

What advice do you have for young people looking to follow in your footsteps?

I was the 13 year old carrying the cameraman's tripod, ripping scripts in the newsroom and fetching the anchorman his cokes from the vending machine at the local station in Syracuse New York.

I'm sure it was a ridiculous sight particularly given the growth chart on the newsroom wall where they would measure my height when I would return each summer. A decade later, I was sharing the anchorman's chair at the anchor desk. I don't suggest giving up your summer vacation at 13 years old, but I do encourage all aspiring journalists to intern as much as possible and to leave a mark by offering to do even the most menial of tasks. It will not go unnoticed.

You've now worked in both Boston and New York City. Are you a Yankees or Red Sox fan?

Sox. But I don't wear my cap to Yankee Stadium. Never a good idea.

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