T. Belman. Based on her experience, track record and skills, I have great confidence in her and expect that she will be a worthy replacement of Nikky Haley.
They insist she’s not qualified because she’s worked in their profession. That’s far too modest.
Former journalist Heather Nauert’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is being greeted with a torrent of skepticism. “What do we do?” CNN host Brian Stelter pleaded with a guest, a newspaper columnist. “She’s not qualified for this job.” An NBC News column faulted Ms. Nauert’s “lack of traditional diplomatic experience.” The Guardian added that she has “no policymaking or negotiating experience.” Senate Democrats promise a tough confirmation. “She is clearly not qualified for this job,” Chris Murphy of Connecticut told CNN. Jeff Merkley of Oregon asserted that Ms. Nauert lacks “deep international-affairs knowledge” and “political leadership” experience.
In more than one profile, Ms. Nauert’s prior role at Fox News is referred to as “talking head.” It’s an unfair and inadequate characterization of her full record in the profession.
There’s a certain irony in journalists leading a campaign to depict journalistic experience as deficient preparation for government work. This view of journalism as a dead-end job whose skills aren’t transferable to other professions isn’t at all accurate. It certainly didn’t deter Al Gore, who was a reporter for Nashville’s Tennessean; John F. Kennedy, who covered the creation of the U.N. for Hearst Newspapers; or Boris Johnson, a journalist for England’s Telegraph and Spectator who became mayor of London and foreign secretary. At least 24 journalists went to work in the Obama administration, by the Atlantic’s count.
It won’t even be the first time a former TV journalist goes to Turtle Bay. In 1973 President Nixon sent former ABC News correspondent John A. Scali to the U.N. after he had served for two years as a special consultant to the president for foreign affairs and communications.
Ms. Nauert’s two decades in journalism may help her understand the practical consequences of the U.N.’s many failures and rare successes. In 2009, as war raged, she spent weeks in Sudan, visiting refugee camps in Darfur and interviewing local leaders, including Ali Osman Taha, then a Sudanese vice president. She covered Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 from Jordan and Iraq. She reported on the first free elections in Iraq and on the subsequent U.S. rebuilding efforts in the region. She also extensively reported on the aftermath of 9/11 in New York and on Islamist terror groups in the Netherlands.
For the past two years, Ms. Nauert has worked in the upper echelons of the State Department. Week after week she’s stood before leading correspondents from international media outlets and articulated complex policies. She also has taken fact-finding trips to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Israel.
Over the past seven months she has served as the fourth-highest official at State and has traveled the globe with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The list of her recent overseas destinations includes at least 20 countries on four continents. She participated in three separate trips to North Korea, high-level NATO meetings and the Group of 20 summit.
It’s no coincidence that the negative reaction to Ms. Nauert has mostly ignored the case of Samantha Power, who was American ambassador at the U.N. from August 2013 until President Trump came to office.
Like Ms. Nauert, Ms. Power started her career as a journalist. It would be hard to make the case that when Ms. Power was confirmed by the Senate she had any more diplomatic, negotiating, or policy-making experience than Ms. Nauert has today. While Ms. Power’s appointment did face opposition, it came in the form of objections to her stated policy prescriptions. The Senate nonetheless confirmed her nomination, 87-10.
Ms. Nauert deserves the same benefit of the doubt. She has shown herself to be a dedicated and articulate patriot. Senators who confirm her should expect to look back favorably at their decision once they see her at work at the U.N.
And if one small side effect of a positive Senate vote is that it expands the career horizons of journalists by demonstrating that their skills are both valuable and transferable—well, that will only be an added benefit to democracy.
Mr. Efune is editor in chief and CEO of the Algemeiner, a New York-based newspaper.
Chris Murphy was not qualified by experience to run for office but ran anyway. Hypocritical of him to say Heather Nauert is not qualified.