A man of many talents, none
of them of any use to a journalist, Roland Burton Hedley III nonetheless
began his career at Time magazine, and was assigned to the
Saigon bureau, where he covered sports. Deciding to add his mellifluous
baritone to the cacophony of American broadcasting, he joined ABC
Wide World of News, and has made a name for himself by travelling
constantly to the world's hotspots, stopping briefly at laundromats
between assignments. He has covered numerous presidential campaigns
and world tours, mercilessly badgering officials with probing questions
and inane queries alike. He attracted a good deal of attention for
his field coverage of rebel forces in the mountains of Afghanistan
-- most of it from snipers. Without a doubt Hedley is best known
for his l980 election-eve expedition into Reagan's brain. Six years
later he mounted a deja vu follow-up expedition in an effort to
jar loose presidential Iranscam memories. But the assignment which
left a lasting personal scar was the l988 GOP convention in New
Orleans. While on the convention floor interviewing the Governor
of Vermont, Hedley's headset caught on fire: trapped in hishelmet,
he was badly burned. Hedley bounded back and made international
headlines when he broke an exclusive story which explained the mysterious
perpetual three-day beard of PLO chairman Yassir Arafat.
After 20 years with ABC, Hedley made the move to narrowcasting, becoming chief
content provider and portal correspondent for AOL-Time-Warner-CNN-Yap!com.
Traveling incognito in Afghanistan he was captured by the Taliban, wounded by Spam in
a U.S. food drop, then rescued by the CIA. Shortly thereafter, he scored a second Yassir
Arafat coup with a live interview from the besieged Palestinian leader's compound,
conducted entirely by flashlight.
Roland Hedley
