On The Frontlines

CBS News’ Elizabeth Palmer, Debora Patta, And Holly Williams Are Breaking Stories, Barriers, And Dusty Stereotypes Of What Makes A War Reporter.

- Lynn Darling

There’s always been a mythic glamour around the old-fashioned foreign correspondent. We all know the prototype— he’s the dashing guy who brashly dares danger to get the stories that rock the world, the handsome guy in the trench coat broadcasting during the blitzkrieg, the one in the seedy Saigon hotel room, tapping out his copy on a battered Olivetti to the tune of a martini or three and a pack of unfiltered French cigarettes. He’s a lone wolf, cynical, obsessed—sexy, of course—inevitably male, moody, mercurial, a cad with a heart of gold, flashing his wry wit and perfect teeth, half in love with the fatal allure of...

Piffle.

CBS correspondents Elizabeth Palmer, Debora Patta, and Holly Williams are making the old legends look pretty moth-eaten these days. True, they’ve got the dash and the dedication part down, but they’ve tossed out most of the rest. They aren’t lone wolves; they’re women with children and partners. None of them are best friends with a bottle of scotch, and they’re hopelessly unromantic about the dangers they’ve faced in some of the world’s most dangerous places.

And yet they manage—brilliantly—to get the job done, bringing us stories that change the way we look at the world.

ELIZABETH PALMER

“I think the mold has changed,” says Elizabeth Palmer. “I don’t have demons or a dark side. I think having a family saved me from turning to alcohol or extreme sports or most probably living only to work. I know people who went down that road and who, when they retire, are utterly lost.” Palmer has been a journalist for 30 years now, first as a radio and TV reporter for the