Episode 317 - Jennifer Griffin

Jennifer Griffin is an American journalist who works as the chief national security correspondent at the Pentagon for Fox News. Griffin graduated from Harvard University in 1992, receiving a B.A. in Government. Prior to working at the Pentagon, Griffin started her career reporting for The Sowetan newspaper in Johannesburg, South Africa, covering Nelson Mandela’s prison release and South Africa’s transition from apartheid. She then lived in Islamabad, reporting on the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan before moving to Moscow in 1996 where she reported for three years on the end of the Boris Yeltsin era and the rise of Vladimir Putin. In 1999, Griffin became a Jerusalem-based correspondent for 7 years, providing coverage of the Second Palestinian Intifada, suicide bombings, military incursions and failed peace deals. In 2000, she provided on-site coverage of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, its withdrawal from the Gaza strip and Yasser Arafat’s funeral. In 2005, Griffin conducted a rare interview with former Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon before he lapsed into a coma. Griffin later coauthored with her husband NPR correspondent Greg Myre This Burning Land: Lessons from the Front Lines of the Transformed Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Since 2007, Griffin has reported daily from the Pentagon where she questions senior military leaders, travels to war zones with the Joint Chiefs and Secretaries of Defense, and reports on all aspects of the military. Since 2010, Griffin has hosted the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine's Heroes of Military Medicine Awards. For the past decade, Griffin has also hosted the Wounded Warrior Experience, which features stories from wounded veterans and service members. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Prevent Cancer Foundation and an Advisory Board Member for Report for America, an effort by the Ground Truth Project to save local journalism. She was recently awarded the Transatlantic Leadership Network 2022 Freedom of the Media Gold Medal Award for Public Service and received the Medal of Honor Foundation’s “Tex” McCrary Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2015. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices