Soledad O’Brien: Diversity of Voices Is Story of America

“News media has really failed to cover mental illness unless there is some sensational event,” said broadcast journalist and executive producer Soledad O’Brien during the 2022 William C. Menninger Memorial Lecture last night at APA’s Annual Meeting. Last night’s lecture was in the form of a “fireside chat” with Felix Torres, M.D., M.B.A., co-chair of APA’s Structural Racism Accountability Committee.

“I don’t think we [in the media] have done a good job thinking about mental illness as a crisis,” O’Brien said. “I don’t know of any parent of a child 11 to 18 years of age who is not dealing with something [related to mental health] post-COVID. And they have nowhere to go, and no one to turn to for help and information. I believe the job of a news organization is to serve the community, and the way you do that is to give people information to help them understand an issue better.”

O’Brien is CEO of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a multiplatform media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. She anchors and produces the Hearst Television political magazine program “Matter of Fact With Soledad O’Brien.” She also reports regularly for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” Beginning in 2003, O’Brien was the face of CNN’s morning news shows and a frequent reporter and analyst for breaking news stories and election coverage before leaving the network to start her own production company in 2013. She also anchored the CNN documentary unit, where she created the “In America” documentary series “Black in America” and “Latino in America.” She is the author of two books, The Next Big Story and Latino in America.

O’Brien said her background as the daughter of an Afro-Cuban mother from Havana and a father who was Australian has helped motivate her to seek out divergent voices in her journalism and documentary productions. “My upbringing really did influence how I approach my job,” she said. “A lot of what media typically does is just find the dominant narrative and tell it. But everyone has a distinct story, and my job is to tell those stories.”

She said she believes the diversity of voices is really the story of America. “We are seeing a moment in America where we are really fighting over how we speak about equity and justice, how to think and talk about the real history of America. Are we really going to ban teaching the real history of America?”

O’Brien said too much of political journalism has become about the highlighting the polarization and partisan fighting of politicians. “I know you don’t like watching congressman fighting with each other,” she said. “Who does? It’s not worthwhile, and it’s not helping anyone’s community.”

With her program “Matter of Fact,” O’Brien said she tries to focus on news series and documentaries that are informative and seek solutions as well as highlight problems and conflicts. In addition to a multipart series on the mental health crisis in this country, “Matter of Fact” will also include a documentary about Rosa Parks and a series on women of color who go missing and why these women frequently do not receive the coverage and attention that White women do.

“Telling stories is our medium as journalists,” O’Brien said. “We should realize we are all contributing to the American story and can affect where this country is going. A lot of people have traditionally felt like they could not contribute their voice. I see a lot of my work as trying to bring those voices into the national narrative.” ■