Arthur “Art” Rascon (BA ’85), broadcast journalist for ABC-13 KTRK in Houston, is a 21-time Emmy Award–winning reporter. His work has landed him in several tight situations, from “being chased in the jungle by men with machetes in Nicaragua” to “having guns pulled on [him] in the Middle East.”
“I remember watching the close of the Vietnam War on television. We only had three channels and we had the rabbit ears on the television. I had to sit there and hold them for my dad so he could watch the television [and] it didn’t break up. I remember telling myself, ‘I think I want to be one of these guys.’ I had such a curiosity of the world—I wanted to report on it and see the faces and recognize more fully these stories.”
“I practically flunked out of English. I was not a good reader. I was not a good speaker. I certainly couldn’t carry a story. I was not a good writer at all. My English instructor in high school said, ‘You need to find something you can actually do. You can’t do this.’ Everything that you think a reporter should be, I was the opposite. But now I’ve won Emmys in writing. I attribute my success to understanding that God is going to make much more out of my life than I could ever possibly make of myself.”
“A journalist’s job is to know something about everything and become an expert in a lot of things. I’m reporting on legal matters, medical matters, political matters, current events. Learn. Grow. Understand. This is an industry where you need to increase in knowledge and understanding about every element of life, and that will help you be a better reporter. BYU offered the most practical experience and one of the most tremendous opportunities that aspiring journalists could ask for.”
“I’ve had four machine guns pulled on my head, but in each case, I have felt an overwhelming sense of calm and assurance that everything is going to be okay. What calms my heart more than anything else is prayer and a knowledge of God’s love, not only for the people I’m covering, but for me to be guided as well. We’re in the heat of a battle, but I have never felt nervous for my life.”
“I was interviewing a 16-year-old girl in a refugee camp in Albania after a war with Serbian troops. After speaking with her—with half her family gone—she insisted that she give me a gift, and her father gave me a half-filled bottle of water. They didn’t have anything—they didn’t have any food; they didn’t have any water. But he gives me this half-filled bottle of water, and to me it was a perfect example of love.”
“The Spirit has influenced my work in every degree imaginable, from saving my life to pointing me in directions that would provide safety and reassurance. I was driving down the highway at 2 or 3 in the morning after Hurricane Katrina with my producer and photographer. We needed to get to Gulfport, Miss., and as we were driving at 75 mph or so, I suddenly felt the impression to slow down. I came to a complete stop in the middle of the deserted highway. I said, ‘I can’t go any farther, and I don’t know why.’ I got out of the car, walked forward just beyond the reach of our headlights, and noticed that the entire roadway had been washed away. It was destroyed. It was a miracle that we survived, and it was only through the impressions of the Spirit.”
