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Journalists: Freedom’s Frontline Troops 
NOTE: Today is the 17th anniversary of the release of kidnapped AP newsman Terry Anderson in 1991, after being held, often chained to a radiator, by Hezbollah for 2,454 days. We take the opportunity to acknowledge the courage of journalists who place themselves in danger to tell the world stories.
“The only thing that protects you out there ... [are] the principles of journalism. A lot of times people are tempted to look for other protection, like, ‘I’m going to wear a bullet-proof vest. I’m going to go out in an American convoy.’ ... There’s only one thing that is going to protect you, and that’s being perceived as somebody who is really just there for the truth and is as objective as possible.”
—Micah Garen, U.S. documentary filmmaker
and co-author of American Hostage (2005), who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2004
and thought he was going to die: “It was like they had set up a studio for a beheading.”
and co-author of American Hostage (2005), who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2004
and thought he was going to die: “It was like they had set up a studio for a beheading.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports 51 journalists kidnapped in Iraq since 2004, and 135 journalists and 51 media workers killed in Iraq since 2003.
Today in History:
1992: President Bush Sr. ordered U.S. troops to Somalia; 1978: Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco mayor after assassination of George Mascone and Harvey Milk; 1969: police kill two Black Panther Party members; 1952: smog kills thousands in England; 1945: Senate approves U.S. participation in United Nations; 1917: psychiatrists report “shell shock” among WWI troops; 1816: James Monroe elected fifth U.S. president
Ted:
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a working reporter, I had absolutely no interest in becoming a hero/martyr/statue subject. That’s why I migrated to talk radio (when it was civilized) and then out of the arena completely when it turned into entertainment and marketing. Sad state of affairs when you recall Murrow and Reston and Breslin and others who told us what they saw and what it meant.
By the way, and as always, this is just my humble and often misdirected opinion, I have a lot of issue with the word hero being a synonym for survivor or victim. Heroes, to me, are the Audie Murphy types who DO something proactively to save other lives, and not just survive prison camp or walk out alive from a bombed out building. The guys who busted prisoners out of the prison camps and who went into the burning buildings to rescue others … they’re the heroes.
Bud Brewer
Orlando
I don't disagree, Bud. "Hero" may be hyperbole, but to me, those who keep going back despite the dangers are worthy of our thanks. Corey Flintoff told my kids here last year, "I'm no hero." But he's back in Baghdad--and you heard NPR's armored car was blown up last week?
ReplyDeleteI got to know Terry Anderson when he was released and came to do a fellowship at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center, where I was working. He always said he was no hero, either.
To me, being kidnapped doesn't make you a hero, but going back into that burning building does.
--Ted