NPR People
John Burnett, NPR Biography
Correspondent, National Desk, Austin
Photo: Steve Barrett
As a roving NPR correspondent based in Austin, Texas, John Burnett's beat stretches across the U.S., and, sometimes, around the world. When he is not on special assignments — reporting from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, walking the streets of New York in the debris of 9/11, or reporting from Pakistan and Iraq leading up to and during the war –- he can be found focusing on the issues and people of the Southwest United States, providing investigative reports, or taking periodic reporting trips to Latin America. His reports are heard regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.
During his years with NPR, Burnett has reported from across the United States and from 25 different countries. Working with NPR since 1986, Burnett served for 18 years as NPR's Southwest correspondent. His 2007 three-part series, "The Forgotten War," which took a critical look at the nation's 30-year war on drugs, won a Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award for Excellence in Reporting on Drug and Alcohol Problems.
In 2006, Burnett's Uncivilized Beasts & Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent was published by Rodale Press. He also recently received an invitation to serve as a 2006 Ethics Fellow at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
In 2004, Burnett won a national Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for investigative reporting for his story on the U.S. bombing of an Iraqi village. In 2003, he was an embedded reporter with the First Marine Division during the invasion of Iraq. His work was singled out by judges for the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award honoring the network's overall coverage of the Iraq War. Also in 2003, Burnett won a first place National Headliner Award for investigative reporting about corruption among federal immigration agents on the US-Mexico border.
In the months following the attacks of Sept. 11, Burnett reported from New York City, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. His reporting contributed to coverage that won the Overseas Press Club Award and an Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award.
In 2001, Burnett reported and produced a one-hour documentary, "The Oil Century," for KUT-FM in Austin, which won a silver prize at the New York Festivals. He was a visiting faculty member in broadcast journalism at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in 2002 and 1997. He received a Ford Foundation Grant in 1997 for a special series on sustainable development in Latin America.
Burnett's favorite stories are those that reveal a hidden reality. He recalls happening upon Carlos Garcia, a Mexico City street musician who plays a musical leaf, a chance encounter that brought a rare and beautiful art form to a national audience. In reporting his series "Fraud Down on the Farm," Burnett spent nine months investigating the abuse of the United States crop insurance system – and shining light on surprising stories of criminality.
Abroad, his report on the accidental U.S. Air Force bombing of the Iraqi village of Al-Taniya, an event that claimed 31 lives, helped listeners understand the fog of war. His "Cocaine Republics" series detailed the emergence of Central America as a major drug smuggling region. But listeners may say that one of his best remembered reports is an audio postcard he filed while on assignment in Peshawar, Pakistan, about being — at six-foot-seven — the "tallest American at a Death to America" rally.
Prior to coming to NPR, Burnett was based in Guatemala City for United Press International covering the Central America civil wars. From 1979-1983, he was a general assignment reporter for various Texas newspapers.
Burnett graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1978. He is married to Dr. Virginia Garrard Burnett, an associate professor of history at the University of Texas, and has three children. When he's not on the air, he's often doing long-distance rides on his bicycle or playing some bad-ass harmonica — but never at the same time.
Iraq: Reflecting on the Past Four Years
All Things Considered, August 17, 2007 · John Burnett mines his tapes from the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and compares them with fresh interviews and impressions from July 2007, asking people in Iraq today — from soldiers to Baghdadis — to reflect on what's happened during the past four years.
In one soundbite from April 2003, a mob of young Shiite men in Sadr City chant "Yes, yes, Bush! Yes, yes, Bush!"
