Lawrence Pintak is the founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, he has been called the foremost chronicler of the interaction between Arab and Western media. His books and articles focus on America’s relationship with the Muslim world, the role of the media in shaping global perceptions and government policy, and the future of journalism in a digital/globalized world.
Pintak reported on the birth of modern suicide bombing and the rise of Hezbollah in Beirut, the Iran-Iraq War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and a variety of other stories across the Middle East. His career extends from the Carter White House to the Indonesian revolution; Armenia to Zimbabwe. He has won two Overseas Press Club awards and was twice nominated for international Emmys. Prior to WSU, Pintak served as director of the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at The American University in Cairo.
He is the host of The Murrow Interview, a series of broadcast conversations with leading figures in international affairs and global journalism and was founding publisher of the online journal Arab Media & Society. His work appears in The New York Times, ForeignPolicy.com, CNN.com, the International Herald Tribune, The Seattle Times and a variety of other publications and he is frequently interviewed by NPR, CNN, Al Jazeera English, BBC and news organizations around the world. Pintak is also the architect of Covering Islam in America, an online course for U.S.-based local journalists offered through Poynter Institute’s News University.
Pintak has advised journalism schools in the Arab world, the Caucasus and Pakistan, where a curriculum he helped develop has been adopted as the national standard.
His books include The New Arab Journalist (I.B. Tauris, 2011); Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam & the War of Ideas (2006); Seeds of Hate: How America’s Flawed Middle East Policy Ignited the Jihad (2003); and Beirut Outtakes (1988). He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Wales.
