Matt Gutman (born December 5, 1977) is an American author and reporter for ABC News. As the network's Chief National Correspondent, he appears on various programs for the network and has been recognized with multiple awards from organizations including The Emmys, RTDNA and the Society of Professional Journalists.[1][2][3][4] He is also the author of the books No Time to Panic: How I Curbed My Anxiety and Conquered a Lifetime of Panic Attacks (2023)[5] and The Boys in the Cave: Deep Inside the Impossible Rescue in Thailand (2018) about the international rescue of a boys soccer team from a cave in Thailand in July 2018.[6] He was the host of the U.S. weekly TV series Sea Rescue when it ended in September 2018 and won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Series in 2016.[7]
Early life and education
Matthew A. Gutman was born on December 5,[8] 1977 in Princeton, New Jersey.[9] On September 25, 1990 Gutman's father, Paul, was killed in a small plane crash in Georgia when Gutman was 12 years old.[10] Gutman attended Newark Academy, where he was honored as a scholar-athlete football player.[11] He graduated from Williams College in 2000.[9]
Career
Gutman started as a freelance print reporter in Argentina in late 2000. His first published article was for the now-defunct English-language Buenos Aires Daily.
Middle East
In mid 2001, Gutman moved to Tel Aviv during the peak of the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada and worked for the Jerusalem Post based in Israel from 2001 to 2005 covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also worked for USA Today before joining ABC News Radio in 2006. Gutman lived in the Middle East for nearly eight years, covering most major conflicts, including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon, filing dispatches from nearly every country in the region.[1]
ABC News
In 2008, Gutman moved to Miami, Florida for ABC News and began appearing on various programs and platforms for the network including ABC World News Tonight, Good Morning America, Nightline and the network's magazine show 20/20. Since 2010, he has filed reports from more than 50 countries for ABC News. In 2014, he took over the hosting duties for Sea Rescue and hosted about 120 episodes of the show. In late 2016, while reporting on the collapsing health care system of Venezuela, he was detained for five days by Venezuelan police and intelligence services.[12] He was named ABC News' Chief National Correspondent in January 2018.
Books
His first book, The Boys in the Cave, tells the story of the rescue of 13 Thai boys and their coach from the Tham Luang cave in July 2018. It was published in November 2018. It has been translated into six languages.[13]
His second book, No Time to Panic chronicles Gutman's undisclosed 20 year battle with panic attacks. Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House, describes it as " the author's personal journey into the science and treatment of panic attacks. Gutman would talk to the world’s foremost scholars on panic and anxiety—they would show him that his mind wasn’t broken, merely in need of recalibration. He would consult therapists and shamans, trying everything from group treatment and CBT to ayahuasca and psilocybin. And he would take a hard look at the way the trauma of his youth—including his father’s death in a plane crash at forty-two—still reverberated inside him.
Unsparing, perceptive, and often funny, this is the story of a panic sufferer who decided to take on the monster within. Filled with wisdom and actionable insights, it’s both an inspirational journey and a roadmap—if not toward a singular cure, then to something only more worthy: peace of mind."[14]
The book received early praise from Publisher's Weekly: “Enlightening… Gutman’s up-close dispatches from his ‘circuitous road toward healing’ are self-aware, sharp, and vulnerable. Anxiety sufferers should take note.”[15] And also from Kirkus Reviews: “Insightful… Both warm and candid, this book is sure to offer helpful doses of hope, humor, and wisdom."[16]
Suspension and return
In January 2020, Gutman was suspended for a month by ABC News for incorrectly reporting that, during the death of Kobe Bryant in the 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash, all four of Bryant's children had died when only Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna, "Gigi", was on board the helicopter and perished in the crash.[17] Gutman's book indicates that experience served as a jumping off point "for a personal journey into the science and treatment of panic attacks," which his book says he has suffered for decades.[18]
That February, Gutman resumed reporting for ABC and appeared on the network's shows. Later in the year, on October 23, 2020, his work appeared in episode of 20/20 entitled "The Perfect Liar," a documentary about wrongful conviction, in which he interviewed jailhouse informant Paul Skalnik and deathrow inmate James Dailey.[19][20]
In February 2021, Gutman was again suspended from ABC News for a short time for violating Disney COVID-19 policies after visiting a Los Angeles hospital for newsgathering purposes without the advanced permission of ABC News management.[21]
^Wilson, Dennis. "Matt Gutman to Be Honored by National Football Group", Scotch Plains-Fanwood Times, March 21, 1996. Accessed September 9, 2017. "Westfield's Matt Gutman will be honored by the Essex County Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame at the annual Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet to be held at Mayfair Farms in West Orange. A senior at Newark Academy in Livingston, Gutman is the Minutemen's honoree for the Chapter's prestigious scholar-athlete awards which are presented to 28 outstanding players who excel not only on the gridiron but also in the academic classroom."
