Arwa Damon Announces She is Leaving CNN, Marking Third Major Exit in Two Months
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Renowned CNN senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, announced her exit from the network on Thursday
Damon, who is based in Istanbul, has been a staple on the network for 18 years and won multiple awards including multiple Emmys. She wrote a lengthy message regarding her exit on Instagram and recounted how she got CNN’s Baghdad bureau chief Kevin Flower to hire her:
Its been just over 18 years. When I left my job at a Turkish textile company (read: selling bathrobes and towels) not just to pursue journalism but actually get myself to Baghdad people said I was crazy & would never make it.
People thought I was insane when I took a gig with a Lebanese company selling porter-johns & flak jackets to rock up at the CNN bureau in Baghdad & have coffee face to face with then bureau chief Kevin Flower to try to convince him to give me a chance.
When I said I wanted to start a charity the reaction was something like “oh that’s nice” and most thought I’d never actually do it.”
Damon has since started INARA, a non-profit that provides medical care to Syrian refugees.
With coverage focused on the Middle East and North Africa, Damon has been at center of major stories from the Arab Spring to the attack in Benghazi to the rise and fall of ISIS.
“She won a George Foster Peabody Award for reporting on the fall of ISIS in Iraq and Syria and three Emmys for her coverage in Iraq and Syria, including Outstanding News Special for Return to Mosul,” reported Adweek on Damon’s distinguished career.
Damon stirred controversy in 2014 when she was forced to apologize for biting two employees at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
“It’s been an extremely stressful time, I was exhausted, I had not had proper food all day and clearly miscalculated how my body would handle the alcohol consumed,” Damon said in her apology at the time. “Needless to say, I am utterly mortified and take full responsibility for my actions, which are inexcusable.”
Daman joins Robyn Curnow and Hala Gorani as the third major international CNN star to leave the network in recent months.
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