TV reporter keeps cool during live broadcast despite gunfire behind her
(Picture: Photo courtesy of CNN)Clarissa Ward, a CNN international correspondent, kept her composure during a live broadcast for New Day on Wednesday morning as she reported on the unfolding catastrophe in Kabul following the Taliban’s startling takeover of war-ridden Afghanistan.
Ward has been a very visible figure over recent days while covering the aftermath of the disastrous US retreat.
On Wednesday she referred to the Taliban’s cynical “public relations” efforts, after they had reduced their footprint overnight to create a sense of peace in the city.
“It’s definitely chaotic; it’s definitely dangerous. I will say this, the Taliban appears to be trying to disperse the crowds,” Ward told CNN anchors Brianna Keiler and John Berman in the footage.
An hour later, she was reporting on a street near the airport. While there, she saw numerous Afghan men gathered nearby, many of whom were anxious to leave the country, demonstrating the unfolding situation. Someone even flashed their green card to New Day viewers.
The gunshots could be heard early in the scene, and viewers could see Ward quiver when the bullets appeared to be fired nearby.
“When there’s a bullet firing like that, Brianna and John, it’s clearly not a game,” Ward said.
Shots ring out behind @clarissaward - as she stands less than 200 yards from the entrance of the Kabul airport.
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 18, 2021
"It's definitely chaotic, she says. "It's definitely dangerous." pic.twitter.com/3iNgULO0fO
Ward then noted that the Taliban fired guns into the air as a kind of crowd control, not to injure civilians. Nonetheless, people can still be hurt.
Ward’s reporting in Kabul will undoubtedly cement her place among the finest wartime reporters of her generation and of all time.
