McCarthy was affiliated with The Independent from 1987-95. He served as a Southeast Asia correspondent in Bangkok and later as the Tokyo Bureau Chief. His coverage included the coup in Burma, during which he interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi during her house arrest. He also reported on the death of Kim Il Sung, and was the first reporter for a British newspaper to enter North Korea after the leader's death. Additionally, he covered the coup in Thailand, the war in Sri Lanka, and the economic and societal developments in Japan.
Time
During his tenure at Time, McCarthy served as the Los Angeles Bureau Chief, East Asia Correspondent in Shanghai, and set up Time's Bureau offices in both Kabul and Baghdad. In both 2004 and 2005, he received an Emmy award for a joint ABC-Times News Series on Iraq.
ABC News
McCarthy was foreign correspondent for ABC News in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America from 2006 to 2009. He was the Principal Baghdad Correspondent during the US surge in Iraq and covered the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein. He traveled down the Yangtze River in China, focusing on the economic, political and environmental impact of the man-made waterway. In 2008, he won an Emmy for the series "Iraq: Where Things Stand" for ABC World News with Charlie Gibson.
CBS News
During his time at CBS News, McCarthy reported on the Middle East, Central Asia and China. While in Afghanistan, he was embedded with the 3rd Battalion 1st Marines, also known as the Thundering Third. His coverage focused on the 1st EOD Company, a team of Explosive Ordnance Disposal experts, which aired as part of the Afghanistan: The Road Ahead Series on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. In 2011, he received an Emmy for Outstanding Continuing Coverage and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Video News Series for his work on the Afghan Bomb Squad.
In 2012, McCarthy was appointed the president and CEO of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, a foreign affairs forum. He has interviewed speakers including Timothy Geithner, Elon Musk, Stanley McChrystal, John McCain and Bill Clinton. He is a frequent speaker and moderator for programs that focus on the media and foreign coverage, American foreign policy, events in the Middle East, and the pivot to Asia. He also provides commentary and expert opinions for publications including The New York Times and Yale Global Online.
From September 2018 to April 2019, McCarthy was the president of the American Academy in Berlin, a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan center for advanced research in a range of academic and cultural fields. The American Academy in Berlin was established in 1994 by Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke and other distinguished Germans and Americans to foster greater understanding and dialogue between the United States and Germany. It awards semester-long fellowships to about two dozen emerging or established scholars, writers, and professionals each year and also brings American thought leaders to Berlin for briefer visits for a robust exchange of views between the peoples of Germany and the United States.
