Covering the Killing Fields
“To all of us who have worked as foreign reporters in frightening places, Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism — the local partner, the stringer, the interpreter, the driver, the fixer, who knows the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than you do.”
—Bill Keller, executive editor, The New York Times, on last week’s death of Dith Pran (1942-2008), Cambodian photojournalist whose story inspired the 1984 film “The Killing Fields,” 2008 (See Dith Pran obit.)
On This Day . . .
. . . In 1940, Booker T. Washington became the first black man featured on a U.S. postage stamp
. . . In 1814, Napoleon was exiled to Elba.
. . . In 1980, President Jimmy Carter cut off diplomatic relations with Iran over hostages held in the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
. . . In 1949, “South Pacific” opened on Brodway, and won a Pulitizer a year later.
. . . In 1992, tennis player Arthur Ashe announced that he had contracted AIDS.
. . . In 1994, the Rwandan genocide erupted, ultimately killing between 500,000 and 1 million people..
Birthdays:
69 . . . Francis Ford Coppola, film director
88 . . . Ravi Shankar, musician
80 . . . James Garner, actor
70 . . . Jerry Brown, California attorney general, former presidential candidate and California governor
69 . . . David Frost, TV journalist
54 . . . Tony Dorsett, football Hall of Famer
44 . . . Russell Crowe, actor
Billie Holiday (1915-1959), jazz singer
William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English Romantic poet
W. K. Kellogg (1860-1951), founder of the W.K. Kellogg Company
Walter Winchell (1897-1972), American journalist and broadcaster
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Pran's death motivated me to go back and see "The Killing Fields" again. It should be on everyone's "watch regularly" list, and should remind everyone what a debt we owe to journalists for maintaining freedom, often at such horrific cost.
ReplyDeleteFran
Loyal WORD correspondent and victim Joe Benham writes:
ReplyDelete"Having been jailed, shot at, tear-gassed and threatened during my foreign correspondent days, I can say a fervent, "Amen!".
When an Army commander gave me -- literally -- until sundown to get out of Southern Bolivia --- even though there wasn't a scheduled flight for three days --- I was extraordinarily glad to see a Bolivian pilot whom I knew land on that dirt strip to re-fuel. A $100 bill changed hands and I was headed off to relative safety.
Safety was a relative term as paranoia seized Bolivia during the hunt for Che Guevara, but some areas were less dangerous for foreigners, especially foreign correspondents.
One of those who poured in as word spread of Che's effort to organize a Cuban-style revolt in Southern Bolivia was a colorful, to say the least, Australian who had been covering the war in Viet Nam. He told a table full of foreign press at dinner, "I have a set of jungle fatigues that I brought from 'nam. I think I'll put them on and go for a stroll. I might get a story out of it". I told him, "No, Murray, you won't get a story -- we will get a story after one of the Army patrols shoots you". Several others who had been covering the story for a while agreed, so our Asusie colleague gave up on the idea and we adjourned to the bar..
Keep up the good work.
Joseph Benham -- a newsman who is still at it after 57 years.