Who is CNN correspondent Richard Roth?

CNN correspondent Richard Roth is recovering from a life-saving kidney transplant from his colleague on April 18, 2022. Roth is a long-time contributor to the news outlet and is currently the senior New York correspondent at CNN. Who is Richard Roth? Richard Roth is CNN’s longest-serving employee, having started with the news outlet in 1980 […]

CNN correspondent Richard Roth is recovering from a life-saving kidney transplant from his colleague on April 18, 2022.

Roth is a long-time contributor to the news outlet and is currently the senior New York correspondent at CNN.

Who is Richard Roth?

Richard Roth is CNN’s longest-serving employee, having started with the news outlet in 1980 when the company first started.

He was a graduate of New York University where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in journalism and quickly joined CNN as the New York assistant bureau chief.

His career with the news outlet has extended over four decades covering hard-hitting news on a national and international level.

In the 1980s, he covered the college student protests at Tiananmen Square and the ensuing violence that followed.

He also covered the terrorist attacks on the Achille Lauro cruise ship and at the Leonardo DaVinci Airport in Rome.

In the early 1990s, Roth covered the Gulf War, the overthrowing of Czechoslovakia and Romanian communist governments, and the opening of the Berlin Wall.

Heading into the 2000s, Roth reported on the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the ensuing wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the tsunami that ravaged South Asia, killing more than 155k people in its wake.

What happened to Richard Roth in Beijing?

It was 1989 and the protests at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China had broken out.

Police were stampeding through the streets, killing all in their path, all the while, Roth was reporting on what he saw.

However, everything did not go according to plan as Roth, who was reporting for CBS, was seized by Beijing police and put in jail.

The Los Angeles Times reported the last words before he was taken in were, “Oh no!”

Roth was held captive for 20 hours before he was released on June 4, 1989. T

he following day, the Los Angeles Times reported that Roth had been kicked and punched while he was held.

After his release, Roth told CBS anchor Dan Rather that he had received a cut under his right eye and explained what had unfolded while he was incarcerated.

“I was pulled along . . . and stumbled a bit and tried to get myself up,” Roth said at the time. “And in the course of . . . righting myself, (I) was then kicked down by one of the soldiers. As I picked myself up, he threw a left hook at me . . . and I didn’t duck.”

Roth told Rather the cut he received was later “treated gently and, it seemed, capably by a Chinese army medic.”

Then-CBS News President David Burke wrote a letter to the secretary of state at the time, James Baker, telling him that Roth’s seizure “represents the worst form of interference with our obligation to report on the events in China and gives us great concern for the safety of our newsmen.”

Courtesy Samira Jafari

Richard Roth received a kidney transplant from his CNN colleague, Samira Jafari[/caption]

Why is Richard Roth in the hospital?

Richard Roth’s CNN colleagues received a plea for help in September 2021, as they were asked to save his life.

The letter, written by Roth said, “At the risk of burying the lead…I write to say I need your help. Urgently. To save my life. Please help me.”

Roth first went on a kidney transplant list in 1999 and underwent four and a half hours of dialysis three times a week before he received a kidney from a deceased donor.

In his letter, Roth told his colleagues he suffers from Polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a disease that causes cysts to grow on the kidneys, with most suffering from kidney failure by the time they’re 60 years old.

At the time of diagnosis, Roth said he “couldn’t bear to ask people for help,” but he became ready to each out.

The kidney he received in 1999 was failing, and with the donor list too long, Roth feared his life would be cut short.

“It takes a special kind of person to keep another human being alive. It doesn’t matter that we may not know each other right now,” Roth wrote in his letter.

“Many of you have lamented not working with me during your career. Here is that chance. You can call yourself a producer if you want. Savior sounds better.”

Samira Jafari, the managing editor of CNN’s investigations unit, came to Roth’s aid and after the tests came back positive, she was approved to donate a kidney to Roth.

In an appearance on CNN’s New Day, Jafari and Roth appeared side-by-side as Roth expressed his gratitude for what his co-worker had done for him.

“I was moved by it,” Jafari said, speaking of the letter Roth had sent out. “It just felt like as a human something I could do at that point in my life.”

Roth wrote a final letter to his colleagues on April 15, 2022, while he was recovering from the kidney transplant procedure.

He thanked those who had come forward to help him, and speaking of Jafari, Roth said simply:

“How do you thank someone who gets you off dialysis and saves your life?”