“We go to remote war zones to report what is happening. The public have a right to know what our government, and our armed forces, are doing in our name. Our mission is to speak the truth to power. We send home that first rough draft of history. We can and do make a difference in exposing the horrors of war and especially the atrocities that befall civilians.” - Marie Colvin
You get the real impression that Colvin’s influence in death could go far beyond her influence in life. There’s probably a 18-year-old journalism student who’s reading this quote somewhere, saying to themselves, “I can do this.”
Anthony Shadid, Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times, has died of an asthma attack while on assignment in Syria. Shadid was an incredible journalistic talent.
The Times executive editor Jill Abramson has said in a statement:
Anthony died as he lived — determined to bear witness to the transformation sweeping the Middle East and to testify to the suffering of people caught between government oppression and opposition forces.
Photo: Shadid in Cairo last February. Ed Ou/NYT.
EDIT: Here is a collection of all of Shadid’s work for the New York Times, which was always exemplary and a model for everyone in the business.
This guy was seriously one of the greats. Read up on him.
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