O’Brien probes infamous crimes
Veteran news anchor and reporter Soledad O’Brien is ready to do crime. The former CNN, MSNBC and Al Jazeera America host now presents Oxygen’s “Mysteries & Scandals,” a true crime series she produced. For the show, she uses her journalist’s skills to reexamine headline-grabbing cases, from O.J. Simpson’s Las Vegas heist to the deadly influence of Slenderman.
The series is one of many projects O’Brien’s tackled since leaving daily journalism in 2013 to start her own production company, Starfish Media. In between producing multiple forthcoming shows and shooting her weekly syndicated political talk show “Matter of Fact,” the New York-based Harvard alum spoke about crime, the state of journalism and the freedom/responsibility that comes with being your own boss. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: You’ve made serious documentaries for CNN and Al Jazeera America on things like the opioid crisis and incarcerated women who raise their children behind bars. Is “Mysteries & Scandals” a total change of pace for you?
A: I’ve been a reporter who covered crime. I’ve been a producer who was dealing with crime stories on a national level. Most of these are cases I’ve covered in some capacity, so it’s not totally new for me. (Back then) I literally sat on O.J. Simpson’s mother’s porch every day, begging her for an interview. But when I left day-to-day journalism and started the production company, the goal was to switch things up. And obviously crime is (a genre) that’s really hot right now. We bring a journalistic eye to it. I like to focus on the motivations. How did this happen? I want to understand why someone does what they do.
Q: You’ve been at the center of broadcast journalism, with CNN, MSNBC, HBO, various morning shows, for some time now. What do you think about the state of journalism today?
A: Oh, no, I feel like you need to hand me a drink for this one (laughs). There’s high value in journalistic voice, something that I wasn’t sure was going to exist when I left day-to-day journalism. Now the work you’re doing really matters. The stakes are high. It matters to speak up and say, “This thing is not true. This is the truth.” Even on Twitter.
Q: You are fearless on social media, especially involving matters that involve race equality. Yet you often manage to disarm arguments with reason and compassion, on a platform where those two things are in short supply.
A: I’m not afraid to ask the questions that need to be asked. Some of that is that I’m not 20 years old anymore. What’s amazing is that the world’s changed. Look at all the different and diverse stories that there are on all these different channels and platforms. But it’s not always easy. It feels bad a lot of the time, really bad, but I think we’re going to look back on this time and say it was really critical to speak up. And to have good journalism. A lot of things shifted and we all sort of went through a transformation in this era. But it’s exhausting.