No one understands the price of freedom quite like Terry Anderson.

As the honorary chair on the Committee to Protect Journalists, Anderson hears detailed accounts of the adversity reporters overcome to tell the truth. He has heard from those who have been raped and tortured for their cause, yet say they would do it again.

And so would he.

While serving as the chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press in 1985, Anderson was kidnapped by Hezbollah Shiite militants in Beirut, Lebanon, and imprisoned for nearly seven years. During his captivity, Anderson lived in chains and was beaten like an animal. Other captives came and went, but after his release in 1991, Anderson, now a professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, became the most recognized and longest-held American hostage.

Monday marked the 20th anniversary of Anderson’s release and, despite the emotional trauma he wrestled with during the last two decades, he remains a genuine optimist. Events that would soil most people’s passion for life inspired him to do more. He isn’t bitter and he isn’t defeated.

‘It’s part of my life, but it doesn’t control who I am,’ Anderson said. ‘I will forever be seen as a former hostage, even though it’s been 20 years, and that’s OK. It’s not my identity.’

Anderson, 64, is a visiting professor at Newhouse for this year only. He teaches an ethics course called NEW 345: ‘Critical Perspectives on News’ and NEW 530: ‘International Reporting.’ Anderson said he plans to retire somewhere in Upstate New York at the end of the academic year, which is nearing its halfway point.

For this year alone, SU students have the ability to learn about the journalism field from a man who has a vast amount of firsthand experience.

‘For students, it’s a pretty rare opportunity to sit in the classroom with someone like that, especially given what’s going on in the world now with two wars in the Middle East,’ said Steve Davis, chairman of the newspaper and online journalism department at Newhouse.

But Anderson knows about much more than journalism. He is an accomplished businessman, and he used to own and operate a blues bar called the Blue Gator in Athens, Ohio. He also knows the ins and outs of running a political campaign, having previously run for the Ohio Senate in 2003 and aiding former President Bill Clinton’s campaign.

Despite Anderson’s wealth of knowledge, he said he prefers not to talk about his kidnapping during classes. He said he came to SU to improve students’ critical thinking and writing skills, not regale them with stories of his past.

‘I don’t teach hostage during the year, I teach journalism,’ he said.

But Anderson said he generally allows students to ask any questions they wish about his ordeal on the last day of class because he knows they’re curious.

Not long after his release, Anderson left the AP and wrote a best-selling memoir about his experience in captivity, called ‘Den of Lions.’ He also began enjoying the new opportunities that became available to him after returning to the United States. Anderson said he learned how to scuba dive, ski and sail. He started training horses on a farm and later became a professor.

Before coming to SU, Anderson taught journalism at Columbia University, Ohio University and the University of Kentucky.

And, to the surprise of many, he returned to Lebanon, oftentimes with students in tow. In 1995, Anderson went there to film a documentary to show the world that the country was not a terrible place — a misconception he had wanted to clear up since his release.

‘Lebanon isn’t a country full of terrorists,’ he said. ‘Lebanese did not kidnap me. A small, radical group did and I can’t hold that against the whole country.

‘When we say the ‘Middle East,’ we see this bearded terrorist with a rag wrapped around his head and a bomb in his hand. Well, that’s just sheer nonsense. They’re people just like anybody else.’

The American media doesn’t do a good job covering the Middle East, he said, which is why he wanted students to see the diverse people and cultures with their own eyes.

Sistina Giordano, Anderson’s teaching assistant, said he makes a real effort to instill core journalistic principles, such as honesty and determination, in his students. These principles, she said, are ones he holds close to his own heart.

When students tell him they want to be a community reporter, for instance, he’ll give them a book and tell them to read up, she said. To him, nothing comes without hard work and nothing should.

Anderson is also honest with his students about the challenges facing aspiring journalists and the field itself. He said that although objectivity is important, if reporters don’t care about what they’re covering, then they shouldn’t be writing about it in the first place. And that’s not something you can learn, he said.

‘I enjoy teaching,’ Anderson said. ‘I can make you a better writer, I can make you a better reporter, I can help you, but I can’t make you a journalist. Not unless you have that thing inside you that says, ‘Not only do I want to know what’s going on, but I need to tell people about it.’

‘We’ve got enough second-rate journalists. If you don’t have a passion for what you’re doing, for the absolute good of finding and telling the truth, then you’re in the wrong business.’

Anderson said that despite all of the problems with journalism today, he has full confidence in the importance of the craft. A free society can only come with a free press, he said, and that takes a sacrifice on the behalf of the reporter.

The daily activities of journalists and foreign correspondents, such as Anderson, take a heavy toll on them, physically and emotionally, he said. Most fail to ever deal with the trauma and pretend they’re OK, he said. Anderson, on the other hand, said he copes by focusing on the ability of ordinary people to operate in dire situations instead of focusing on the violence.

‘To see violence, death, starvation every day in your job, you can’t escape being damaged by it,’ he said. ‘It does affect you, and just because you get to write it down and put it in a newspaper doesn’t mean it goes away.’

During the past few years, Anderson continued to deal with his past by keeping busy and keeping a positive attitude. When his first horse kicked him in the head, breaking the right side of his face and leaving a scar under his right eye, Anderson didn’t let it keep him from getting back on the saddle — literally and figuratively.

His determination to keep learning and to never give up also shines through during class

‘Initially, when I met him, it was hard not to think, ‘Oh, it’s Terry Anderson the hostage.’ You can’t help but think about that every once in a while. But then, as the semester progresses and you begin to develop this rapport with the professor, he’s so much more than that,’ Giordano said. ‘It just doesn’t define him.’

egsawyer@syr.edu 

Published on December 7, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer