Most news outlets have been covering the serious injuries sustained by ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff, and his camera-man Doug Vogt. Soldiers in Iraq get killed by IEDs every day, but it is much more “in your living room” when it happens to a guy who’s whose face is actually in your living room every night.
“While Mr. Woodruff, 44, faces months of recovery and the full extent of his injuries are not yet known, Colonel Tellez said he could imagine him going back to work someday as a broadcast journalist. ‘He has a very good chance,’ Colonel Tellez said.
The cameraman, Doug Vogt, who was not as severely injured by the explosion, was ‘awake a lot, and talking to family and friends,’ said Marie Shaw, a spokeswoman for Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. [Link]
Another person that was with both Woodruff and Vogt in Iraq, but who doesn’t get any camera time, is ABC News producer Vinnie Malhotra.
Just before the C-17 jet lifted off early Monday from Balad Air Base near Baghdad, an ABC Television News producer, Vinnie Malhotra, stood somberly to the side as doctors and nurses strapped his colleagues and friends Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt in for the five-hour flight.
“They’re hanging in there,” said a subdued Malhotra, who was working with Woodruff and Vogt when they were seriously wounded by a roadside bomb Sunday in Iraq. [Link]
In a poignant report on Monday’s “World News Tonight,” ABC News said that after the attack Woodruff asked his producer, Vinnie Malhotra: “Am I alive?”[Link]
A quick search reveals that Emmy nominated Malhotra has been right there in the thick of things, having spent months reporting from Afghanistan, in addition to Iraq. Much respect. If I hadn’t pursued the line of work that I am pursuing, than I can’t think of a job I’d rather have than reporting from a war zone.
Years ago, one of the TV channels (could have been History Channel) did 1-2 hr special on war correspondents – It was very moving. Many of them whose photographs and stories from Sudan, Iraq and other places in the world that move governments and people into action or empathy die in cross-fire.
There was a story of a sister trying to find how her younger brother (a Brit, in his early twenties) died in one of the zone of conflict.
Last year, I went to a talk by NYT war correspondent (Pulitzer Prize winner) on the campus – He was really hard on war, and himself. He confessed that it is not fun – seeing your buddies die. Some of them become so much action junkies that they cannot do any other job – they seek one war after another.
another war time correspondent of note, editor emeritus to one of the best rags in the world IMHO … and a recipient of the Order of Canada.
hey man… i cant let this pass… especially since you are basically alluding to journalistic/literary aspirations in the same sentence… i know it’s a typo … but it’s just jarring to me… free to kill this comment post-correction. cheers – V.
ok … mea culpa… referenced the old book.
:than – used especially after inverted constructions to say when something happened. e.g. Barely had she opened the door than the phone started to ring.
I suppose you have an inverted construction up there.
I was thinking more in the sense of
:then – to introduce an interesting or contrasting fact. e.g. It was a brave thing to do, but then again I would have expected no less of her.
to sum it up… I think I should leave constructive editing out of my professional profile… apologies and cheers – V.
That is why real journalists have editors 🙂
We’re not romanticizing warzone journalism now with your druther there Abhi, are we?
Well, I can romanticize it for myself since it is a type of job that I know suits my personality an interests. I don’t think my post is going to make anyone run out an become a war correspondent though. I also often romanticize being a NAVY SEAL as well. 🙂
Um..’whose’ not who’s
See comment #5 🙂 The sad part is that I changed it from whose to who’s AFTER I edited.
FYI, here’s a link for a really intense documentary about war correspondents in Iraq: “War Feels Like War”
It was shown on PBS recently and is supposed to be available on Netflix.
Abhi, have you read “War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” by Chris Hedges?
Kush said :
Saheli said:
Kush, meet Saheli. Saheli, meet Kush. 🙂
Ashwin,
Yes, it was Chris Hedges.
I have met Saheli before (only online). Thanks!!