Schoofs talks AIDS, globe trotting

by Mike Myers
Staff Writer

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Mark Schoofs spoke to ULV students and faculty about his work as a foreign correspondent covering everything from AIDS in Russian prisons to Sept. 11 from Ground Zero.

Schoofs, who is currently on leave from the international desk of the Wall Street Journal spoke mainly about international reporting to a group of communications and journalism students and professors.

“My theory in journalism is that it is not tough, you just need to put one foot in front of the other,” Schoofs said. “Getting one foot in front of the other is 99 percent of reporting.”

Schoofs recounted stories about his experiences in the field, the obstacles he ran into and how he overcame them.

His expertise in covering AIDS and HIV have taken him to many different countries to report on the disease and its spread, most recently in Africa.

However, a story he chose to tell was about the disease’s spread in Russian prisons where he found inmates, who had not been tested for the disease, openly sharing needles to inject drugs.

He described the network of needles passing through prison windows on string, what inmates called the prison Internet.

In that setting, Schoofs said, one of the toughest things was being able to get on-the-record information from the inmates, guards and other law enforcement officers in Russia, who were afraid of having their real names used for fear of repercussions.

Nevertheless he was able to convince enough key sources to tell their stories and let their names be used.

Another obstacle was having to get “a letter from Moscow” saying that it was okay for him to get inside of the prisons and pretrial detention centers.

His main point in this story was that a journalist must get to the sources directly involved and tell these people’s stories so it is a story and not an issues report.

His second story was about material witnesses with terrorism and his experience covering the Sept. 11 attacks and Anthrax scare that followed.

He described how he tried to make contact with the FBI, knowing no one there.

“If you have no sources you need to call everyone in your phone book,” Schoofs said. “When covering a story in other countries you need to be aware who you are talking to (and their politics). One thing I usually do while reporting is ask the source if they have any questions before I ask mine,” Schoofs said, adding that this is a good way to disarm a source.

Schoofs has interviewed people in Africa and he will soon go to China for research on a book he is in the process of writing called “AIDS Around the World.”

He said that with the rewards of traveling to exotic places come difficulties, like needing a translator for interviews and making sure the spirit of his interview subjects’ communication – as well as the words – were conveyed accurately.

Schoofs, who earned his bachelor of arts in philosophy at Yale, started his journalism career writing about the AIDS epidemic for the Gay and Lesbian press in San Francisco.

He was later hired by the Village Voice, before making the switch to the Wall Street Journal.

His first Pulitzer in 2000 was for his eight-part series in the Voice, “AIDS: The Agony in Africa.” His second was for his work for team coverage of the Sept. 11 aftermath for the Journal.