Anderson knows too well the dangers of extremism fueled by unbridled rhetoric. It has been five years since the former Middle East bureau chief of the Associated Press was released by militant Shiites who had held him hostage in Beirut for a harrowing 2,454 days—the longest captivity of any American. Once a subject of the news, he's now happy talking about it, albeit in his own style. "I listen to talk radio, and I find much of it offensive," says Anderson, a liberal whose favorite topics range from the Middle East to race relations. "I thought, if I'm going to do it, it has to be reasonable." That approach has worked. His weekly program, Common Sense, is a hit with listeners of New Rochelle's WVOX in a suburb of New York City. "He made an almost instant connection with the hearts and minds of our listeners," says William O'Shaughnessy, the station's president.
While the show and a weekly syndicated newspaper column are naturals for Anderson, personal adjustments have been difficult. "I didn't think we'd make it," Madeleine Bassil, 46, says of her husband's stressful first year back. But once they moved into a new house—a four-bedroom colonial on two wooded acres in Yonkers, N.Y.—"everything fit into place," she says. Relations are improving between Anderson and his sister Peggy Say, who lobbied tirelessly for his release and later expressed disappointment at his aloofness. "There were expectations on both sides that didn't always match," says Anderson, who now speaks to Say occasionally by phone. And he has had to work at building a bond with his daughter Sulome, a fifth grader, born three months after he was taken hostage. Now, he jokes, "it's a perfectly normal relationship.... Like any 10-year-old, she can drive you crazy in about 30 seconds." Though Anderson travels often for speaking engagements, Bassil says, "I like him to go away sometimes—doesn't every woman? But knowing he's coming back—that's the best part."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
