Richard Roth (born 1955) is an American journalist, a CNN

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

who covers the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

. He was the host of '' Diplomatic License'' (until its cancellation in January 2006), a weekly program that was devoted to

affairs. Roth is a CNN "original" — one of the first employees when the

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

launched in 1980. He has covered a wide range of stories over the last 25 years, from the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

to the fall of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the gover ...

and the first

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

Biography

Roth was born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, Roth graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

with a degree in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...

. Roth lived in

Whitestone, Queens Whitestone is a residential neighborhood in the northernmost part of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood proper is located between the East River to the north; College Point and Whitestone Expressway to the west; Flushing and ...

, in the early 1970s. Before CNN, he was an

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

and reporter for

AP Radio The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

and a producer for

WPIX-TV WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of The CW ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

In popular culture

Richard Roth appeared in Robert Wiener’s book '' Live from Baghdad''. He appeared as a character in the 2002 HBO film of the same name where he was portrayed by actor

Hamish Linklater Hamish Linklater (born July 7, 1976) is an American actor and playwright. He is known for playing Matthew Kimble in ''The New Adventures of Old Christine'', Andrew Keanelly in ''The Crazy Ones'', and Clark Debussy in '' Legion''. He is the son of ...

. The book as well as the film features Roth’s brief involvement with Wiener’s crew in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

which was caused by sudden withdrawal of his fellow reporter colleague Tom Murphy on safety issues. Roth was stationed in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 as of 2021, Amman is ...

before joining Wiener and left the crew shortly before the

began, but within this time became part of an important coverage where the CNN team stepped into a messy US diplomatic mission in

and he interviewed a stranded US expatriate worker Robert Vinton. Roth’s interview of Vinton saw widespread coverage in the US and caused subsequent disappearance of Bob Vinton by the Iraqi authorities, though he was finally released and allowed to leave

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

for home.

References

Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2006. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006

Document Number: H1000085213

External links

CNN staff biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Richard American television journalists Living people Jewish American journalists New York University alumni 1955 births CNN people People from Whitestone, Queens Journalists from New York City Date of birth missing (living people) American male journalists 21st-century American Jews