Speaker 1: We were up in the air. I heard three somethings.
Speaker 1: I looked at one soldier and I said, that's not
Speaker 1: a good sound. Is no, we're going down? And I said,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? We're going down? And then the
Speaker 1: other one's right up, We're gonna die. And then we
Speaker 1: started to go down.
Speaker 2: Just another day in the dangerous and improbable life of
Speaker 2: Cookie hood, party girl, mus mother, journalist, warrior American history,
Speaker 2: jammed in a mortar show and blowing the fuck up.
Speaker 2: Cookie's a classic broad right out of a boat. She's
Speaker 2: not famous, but she did break the biggest story of
Speaker 2: the nineteen eighties. You've probably heard of, the Iran concert scandal.
Speaker 2: It was like Watergate nine to eleven January sixth, all
Speaker 2: rolled into one big clusterfucker. But that's not the good part.
Speaker 2: It's the journey. Cookie's journey always at the crossroads of history,
Speaker 2: one way or another. So how does a half American,
Speaker 2: half Nicaraguan party girl from New Orleans with that absolutely
Speaker 2: no journalism experience break the biggest story of the eighties.
Speaker 2: That's what journalista is all about.
Speaker 1: Mike Wallace once said to me, Cookie, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you the best piece of advice. Always cover the story,
Speaker 1: never be the story, and as you'll be able to tell,
Speaker 1: I was the story.
Speaker 2: You told me once that you thought of yourself as
Speaker 2: missus scarface.
Speaker 1: I was just having fun the parties, a couple of
Speaker 1: hit men here and there. Pablo Escobar I was asked
Speaker 1: two questions, how do you feel about roadblocks? I can
Speaker 1: get in and out of anything. What would you say
Speaker 1: is your main quality? Adaptability? I could sleep at the
Speaker 1: Plaza Hotel in New York as easily as I can
Speaker 1: sleep in a shack on top of coffee beans. She says,
Speaker 1: you got the job within six months. I was running
Speaker 1: the CBS bureau. I'm a woman wife beater T shirt,
Speaker 1: not wearing a bra, curses like a sailer. I got
Speaker 1: balls bigger than any man. That's what made it different.
Speaker 1: That's what made it special, and that's what CBS knew.
Speaker 1: Dan Rather used to call me his secret weapon. How
Speaker 1: CBS hats so lucky as to find and hire her?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: The moment, I can't feel emotional about the story or
Speaker 1: help these people. I'm out. I was a crazy bitch
Speaker 1: and I was living in the asshole of the world.
Speaker 1: We work hard, but we party even harder. You never
Speaker 1: knew if the next day's battle was going to be
Speaker 1: the one that killed you.
Speaker 2: During the nineteen eighties and nineties, Cookie Hood was the
Speaker 2: driving force behind the most successful television coverage of Central
Speaker 2: America that appeared anywhere in the United States.
Speaker 1: I'm amazed and I did what I did and got
Speaker 1: away with doing it just from bullshitting.
Speaker 2: Listen to Journalista every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts.