She’s a trailblazer for women in media. Elizabeth Vargas’ hard work and dedication have earned her countless accolades, but this year she adds the 2025 Cynopsis Media Icon Award to her collection.
“I’m just really thrilled and honored that they thought of me,” Vargas told Barrett Media. “I think it’s a great event. I especially love that they’re saluting and recognizing women.”
The NewsNation anchor is living out her childhood dream of being a journalist, but it took a lot of grit to get to where she is today.
She began her career by editing her high school newspaper, then moved on to the University of Missouri, where she fell in love with broadcasting.
“I literally started working the day after I graduated in local news, and I have never looked back,” she said.
Success comes with a lot of sacrifice, and Vargas’ career is no exception. “I had many years when I didn’t know if I could pay my rent or put gas in my car because I couldn’t afford it,” she recalled of her early industry days. “But it never occurred to me to do anything else. I have always, from moment one, absolutely loved this business, and I still do.”
Elizabeth Vargas, who also hosts a podcast called Heart of the Matter, recognizes that while she may share the same financial struggles today’s journalists are concerned about, her path to the national stage was different because of timing. “When I was coming up, everybody, you know, learned on the local level,” the Emmy Award-winning journalist said.
Having started at the local level, she was able to make mistakes in front of a smaller audience. She’s also appreciative of this journalistic upbringing because of the amazing former bosses she met along the way. “I’ve always had really great bosses, at key moments,” she recalled of her bosses in Chicago, Phoenix, and NBC. “[I had bosses who] just took me under their wing and said, ‘This is how you do it.’”
Today, journalists also face another problem: the advent of social media. “There are a lot of people online right now spouting all sorts of things that are categorically biased,” Vargas said. “I was raised and trained in a culture where there was strict fact-checking and standards.”
“[Today journalists are] competing against some yahoo on X, who just has an opinion,” Vargas said. “And the challenge right now, for America and the world at large, is sifting through the incredibly huge avalanche of nonsense and misinformation to find anything that is real information.”
She also does not like the idea of citizen journalism. “Elon Musk loves to talk about the citizen journalist,” Vargas said. “The fact of the matter is that that’s like saying, ‘Okay, I’m a citizen doctor, and I diagnose you with X, Y, and Z.’ It’s ridiculous. Journalists know how to ask questions, they know how to get double and triple sources.”
Aside from “citizen journalists,” another problem young journalists face in the industry is believing they have to have an opinion to create a relationship with the audience. Vargas says this is utter nonsense. “I think my job always is to do copious amounts of homework and to use a lot of critical thinking, and that’s something I wish more people would do in their personal lives,” Vargas said.
“The biggest compliment I got in the last few days was from somebody who said, ‘I love to watch your show, but I’m never really sure what you think. Are you liberal, or are you conservative? I can’t tell.’” What might seem like an imposing question, Vargas views as a compliment. Vargas, a Peabody Award winner, believes, “If you can’t tell [my political party], then I’m doing my job right.”
Elizabeth Vargas encourages everyone to question any and all the information they receive in the news cycle. Questions like, “What’s your source? Where did you read that? How do you know that to be true?” should be going through everyone’s mind.
She added, “Make sure that what you’re reading and what you’re hearing is from a solid source, and you can confirm it. Just because one person says it nowadays doesn’t mean you should believe it. You need to do your homework.”
The sources everyone should be looking for are those with “first-hand knowledge,” Vargas emphatically declared. “I think there’s a reason why newspapers have editorial pages. They report the news throughout the newspaper, and then on the editorial page, they get to spout off with their opinion.”
Vargas believes all this opinion might be “one of the reasons we have such division—because nobody’s hearing from people with whom they might not agree.”
Despite all the challenges and implicit bias in the news world, there are glimmers of hope for the future of the industry. For those looking to follow in Vargas’ footsteps, she suggests they find good mentors and “work hard, ask questions, [and] do not be afraid to ask questions over and over.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
