Getting roughed up by thugs: the new normal?

Anderson Cooper was "roughed up by thugs" this week - as he posted on Twitter - and many now wonder if this is the new normal for journos.

By new normal I mean, any self-respecting scribe will earn his stripes traveling halfway across the world and not flinch if sent into rock-throwing range of a crazed Muslim brother or frantic eighty-year-old democracy-hungry doctor.

Maybe I'm a wimp, but I'll take my journalism work the way I would take any job: without putting my life in danger. I didn't become a cop or firewoman or President of the United States. I am a journalist. I am not required to put my life on the line in order to get to the story.

To see CNN and the New York Times and Fox News and whomever else jockeying for stories and standing space on the square over there in Cairo...well, it's just a little unsettling. More than a little.

There have always been war correspondents. And war photographers. These are noble professions -- but they stand apart from other types of journalism. Ten years ago it wasn't frowned upon to be a good, hardworking journalist who would refuse to put her life on the line.

Nowadays, with the 24-hour news cycle and everyone worrying what blogger will come and take her job away, well, journalists are going out on a limb - and then some.

I was saddened to see David Rohde's name on a news story from Egypt today. Having just read his wife's moving account of his kidnapping by al-Qaeda and emotional return, I figured he'd stay put forever. He'd learned his lesson.

What do I know?

I remember once leaving a message on my outgoing answering machine -- back in 2003 at the start of the Iraqi conflict -- stating that I was off to the Middle East to report. Please don't worry, I stated, and I wouldn't forget to write.

My brother took it seriously and was frantic.

"How could you do that to me? To the family?!" he shouted.

I thought it was funny. "What? You wouldn't honestly think I would do such a thing, would you?"

"I don't know - yeah?"

I thought a moment. It was a question I never forgot - and one that my profession is, more and more, answering on my behalf.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Generations: How a young millennial journalist makes (and gets) her news (part 1 of 2)

Image
Marissa Gamache will be starting her senior year of college this autumn, spending part of it studying in Ireland at Maynooth University before graduating from Bethel University in Minnesota. She is completing a double major in journalism and international relations, and this summer, is interning as a reporter on the government team at Transport Topics in Arlington, Va. where I am a business reporter. I wanted to discuss with Marissa how her generation of reporters sees journalism these days, where it's going, and how she fights the allure of getting all her news from Facebook . Marissa, when you think of previous generations of journalists, what words come to mind? I think of the 6 p.m. nightly news and my parents. Are they journalists? No. I think of old journalism, Watergate, Edward R. Murrow, and Bob Costas. Thank you. So, how do you feel your generation is changing the way journalism is done? I think we're on a minute-to-minute basis. I think we are expecting
Read more

9-11 Conversations, 10 years of memories

Image
Edward's cousin worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. I would hear about his cousin's death when Edward came into Barnes & Noble in Westport, where I began working in October, 2001 after my job in New York came to an end that August. Edward was very depressed. He just wanted something of his brother's, wanted to go back, touch the site. I believe he got a sweater of the cousin's. Then there was the time I was wrapping a child's gift. I smiled, "Who's it for?" The patron, stonefaced, told me "her father died in the attacks." *** Moving to New York in 2001, I had a choice of either living in the city or moving farther out into the 'burbs. I chose the latter, but commuted into Midtown Manhattan, where I worked as a real estate writer for Rubenstein Associates. This PR firm happened to have represented, and still does, Larry Silverstein Properties. I had no idea who Silverstein was, but I knew this was all pretty fancy. I also knew that New York w
Read more

Journalists and so-called 'corporate culture'

Image
One of my favorite journalists was Hunter S. Thompson. I remember my ex-boyfriend Benoît telling me that he'd loaned my copy of "Fear and Loathing" to his brother, and that they both said my comments in the margins seemed more like something a guy would have written. I took that as a compliment. In college, I took a five-unit Hemingway course (three units was the average) and loved reading his old journalistic writings. I liked being a "chick" in a man's game. It reminded me of my high school newspaper, where I was one of the only females on the team of reporters. I am still in touch with these guys, and cherish those memories from Livermore, California. So looking back, I realize I was molded long ago to be a tomboy type of journalist, one who could spar with fellows on the one hand, while still looking lovely in lace that evening. I wore the same long man's blue and white striped work shirt with jeans in college, every day, cigarette dangling from my
Read more