Elon’s School of Communications hosted CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts and the Associated Press broadcasters of North Carolina on April 21.
Pitts was the featured speaker at the annual state AP broadcaster awards luncheon, held at Elon for the first time.
Pitts has been to Iraq eight times and said the situation seems to grow more dangerous each time he visits. He described himself as someone who is more caring than curious, saying he’s not inclined to be the first one out the door when there’s gunfire or an explosion nearby.
“I’m not THAT curious,” he quipped. But he does believe in storytelling, whether it’s in Iraq or New Orleans, looking for the best way to give voice to those whose voices are seldom heard.
Pitts said CBS, in the tradition of Edward R. Murrow, remains known as the network that lets each correspondent have his or her own style of telling a story.
Pitts grew up near Apex, N.C., and said he narrowed his college choices to two as a teenager — Elon or Ohio Wesleyan. He went to Ohio because, he said, at that age he liked the idea of being a distance from home. He has a son now employed at WRAL-TV in Raleigh.