Jeudi 29 avril, les 2M ont pu dialoguer avec Gregory Philipps, ancien élève, rédacteur des premiers numéros d’Interpaul, grand reporter et correspondant permanent de Radio-France à Washington.
Gregory Philipps’ passion for journalism started in high school, in 1989, when he created Paul Lapie’s magazine Interpaul alongside his English teacher M. Gross.
He graduated in economics and studied for two years at the journalism institute in Bordeaux. Then, he did an internship at Radio Bleu, which was a great training experience.
Some years later, Radio France hired him for a permanent position. He worked as a freelance journalist for a few years, and it allowed him to travel the world, which was very exciting. Then, he worked as a reporter and went to different places such as Abidjan or Afghanistan, where he learned to work in a high-security environment. Finally, he was named special correspondent in Jerusalem and Washington.
While he was in Abidjan, Gregory Philipps and other French journalists were targeted by militiamen. They took shelter in a hotel where the manager agreed to hide them. When the terrorists arrived in the hotel to kill the journalists, the manager and the three receptionists refused to tell where the French were and sacrificed their lives to save them. This was a very traumatizing experience and it made him realize that he didn’t want to put himself in that kind of dangerous situation anymore.
After this episode, he decided to settle down a bit and asked for another position. This is when he became a special correspondent in Jerusalem, which was much safer. He stayed there for two years. It was fascinating to see the contrast between the different places in such a small area what with Gaza, Tel-Aviv, and Jerusalem. Also, he felt that there was a lot of tension because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The stories he covered were very sensitive and the people there were very critical of his work, which put a lot of pressure on him.
One of the biggest events Gregory Philipps has ever covered was 9/11. He was sent by Radio France and they booked two private jets to fly to Canada from where they drove to New York. He also covered Hurricane Katrina, Barack Obama’s presidential election, and recently Trump’s term in office.
Those four years were very intriguing considering that Trump was a populist leader. Gregory Philipps did his best to not indulge in any form of anti-Trump stereotyping. He had to deal with a lot of conspiracy theorists throughout the mandate, especially during Trump’s meetings. He also met and interviewed a lot of Trump supporters who were glad to be given a voice. He worked with three other freelancers, one in Washington as well, one in New York, and one in Los Angeles.
Since Trump left the White House, Gregory Philipps had to say that things have settled down. It became a lot more professional and there are no longer leaks from the White House. Biden is quite familiar with the place since he was Obama’s vice president for eight years. He is already planning on implementing new social reforms such as parental leave or free kindergarten, which is unprecedented in the history of the US.
One thing Gregory Philipps noticed in the US is that people are not afraid to say what they think and are very comfortable with voicing their opinion. That is because they learn how to speak in public from an early age. Another thing is that people are actually well informed because many sources of information are available. However, a gap still exists between city-dwellers and rural Americans in terms of information. The latter tend to only use social media like Facebook which is filled with fake news or conspiracy theories and uses an algorithm that basically shows them what they want to see.
Gregory Philipps has been living in the US for four years now and he loves it. He thinks it is an awesome country with amazing landscapes and it has been a pleasure to him to travel it. He is now preparing his return to Paris with his family. He is also looking forward to starting a Podcast series.
During his visit, Gregory Philipps seemed seasoned, experienced, and poised.
I personally would not accept his working conditions because I think it would be too hard to manage my personal life with this job, considering that I would have to often move from country to country and I think it would be too much of a change every time and too hard to handle.
One thing I learned from Gregory Philipps’ account is, if you are passionate about something, go for it because even if he was an average student and did not study in a top journalism school, he did not give up and managed to work his way up to achieve his goal. He also did not hesitate to take risks to pursue his career, even when the going got tough, he didn’t quit, which I find really admirable.
Sarah with Juliette and Maxime
