TV News Vet Ann Curry Says Newspapers Are Getting The Prime Scoops

We’ve got an interview with Ann Curry in the new issue, in which Curry talks about her new series on PBS. Called We’ll Meet Again, the series looks at some of history’s biggest events—World War II, Vietnam, September 11—through the eyes of individuals who lived through them. Each episode reunites people who were split up during the historic event.

Curry said of We’ll Meet Again, “As much as I love fiction, and I do love great storytelling in fiction, you just can’t make these stories up. The nuances are just mind blowing. Where it takes you, the unpredictability of real life and what happens to real people, it stuns me. And I’ve been doing this a long time.”

The show debuts January 23. Curry says a second season for We’ll Meet Again is not up to her, but strongly suggested the show will live beyond its inaugural season. “There seems to be a great deal of excitement at PBS, my partners in the production,” she said. “I get the impression I may not have a choice about a second season.”

She added that a season two “is pretty much a done deal,” in part because of the stories that are pouring in for consideration. “There will be so many ideas—our focus will have to be getting through all of them,” said Curry.

Curry departed Today in 2012. She didn’t rule out a return to a regular anchor position. “I’m always open to something that would be what the public wants,” she said, “and what I can contribute depth and value to.”

We also spoke about which news sources she most relies on. She singled out John Dickerson, a new addition to the CBS This Morning host crew. But the bulk of Curry’s favorite reporters are at the newspapers. She mentioned Julian Borger of The Guardian and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. “I think we’re living through some of the best of times in journalism,” said Curry. “There’s an old-fashioned newspaper war between the Washington Post and the New York Times, which we’ve not seen in decades.”

She added, “A lot of the ground-breaking, revelatory journalism seems to still be coming from the newspaper press. Fundamentally, they’ve just been at it longer, and get more space and more time to do their stories.”

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.