Lisa Ling wants to know when it became acceptable for an old white guy to sit in front of a television camera, tell viewers what to think about world issues and call it news.

‘When was the last time he was in Afghanistan or Iraq?’ Ling asked. ‘When did that become news?’

Ling spoke Monday night to an audience composed almost entirely of female students in Goldstein Auditorium. She described select experiences from her 15 years of journalism, weaving her own stories into what she thinks about the current state of network and cable journalism.

Because her parents divorced when she was young, Ling grew up with the television as her baby-sitter. Like any other child, she had favorite shows and dreamed of being part of the Brady family.

‘I didn’t look like the Bradys though,’ Ling said. ‘The only person on TV who resembled me was Connie Chung, so I thought maybe journalism could be the route to take.’

Ling attended the University of Southern California and immediately took a job with Channel One, a network that broadcasts news to millions of middle and high school students across the country. Channel One allowed Ling to travel internationally; to Russia to referendum elections and to Afghanistan with the Red Cross, among others.

When she arrived in Afghanistan, Ling and her escort were immediately surrounded by young boys carrying weapons taller than they were.

‘They had a look of lifelessness, like they could shoot me and think nothing of it,’ Ling said. ‘They just waited around, day after day, to fire those weapons.’

Ling’s visit occurred when the United States still maintained friendly relations with Afghanistan, but both U.S. and Soviet forces had pulled their troops out of the country. This exacerbated Afghanistan’s civil war, leading to destruction of cities and villages across the country.

‘Words can barely describe what it was like,’ Ling said. ‘I wondered how it was that Americans, and especially young people, were so unaware that this scene existed.’

This lack of citizen awareness is evidence of a larger problem in broadcast journalism, Ling said.

‘Network news doesn’t portray the reality of the world, and with cable news, it’s the same stories over and over again,’ Ling said. ‘Stations only cover international news when there are catastrophes – they don’t cover everyday life.

‘The talking masked as news is reprehensible.’

After seven years at Channel One, Ling took a job on ‘The View,’ CBS’s daytime talk show that included Barbara Walters and Star Jones. From the first episode she saw, Ling felt empowered by the show.

‘We could talk about everything from politics to Tom Cruise’s personal life,’ Ling said. ‘I used to love Tom Cruise … that was before he got weird.’

During an episode the week after Sept. 11, 2001, Ling commented that people should ask themselves why the terrorist attacks happened. While she didn’t think the comment was offensive, CBS received an outpouring of responses, mostly wanting to know ‘what kind of American’ Ling was.

‘That experience really signaled to me that it was time to go back in the field,’ Ling said.

She moved to National Geographic, where she currently hosts the documentary series ‘Explorer.’ Ling is also a frequent contributor on ‘Oprah,’ whom she describes as ‘extraordinary.’

‘Oprah wants the stories about female gender mutilation, the stories that are tough to report on,’ Ling said. ‘On ‘The View,’ those ideas were just shot down.’

Although Ling has traveled all over the world, one of her most powerful experiences was an investigation of gang rape in the Congo. Groups of guerillas move into villages and brutally rape women in front of their families. Often, children are forced to hold their mothers down.

‘It’s egregious and unforgivable how women are treated in the world,’ Ling said. ‘If women don’t stand up for other women, no one else will.’

Ling closed her speech by reading the first piece she did for ‘Oprah,’ which focused on Indian women being abused by their husbands and their families because they are unable to increase their dowries. In many situations, husbands pour kerosene on their wives, then set them on fire. Ling described the rancid smell of burning flesh that overtakes entire floors of hospitals, and the fact that although most victims die, these wards are almost always full.

‘To use one of Oprah’s favorite sayings,’ Ling said, ‘now that you know, you can’t pretend that you don’t.’

Published on April 17, 2006 at 12:00 pm