Bob CollinsEveryone has an opinion on “the media” today because the pampered TV anchors and insular political reporters have once again made it easy to narrowly define the term, with their ridiculous annual decision to party with the people they’re supposed to be covering.
That, for many people, is “the media.” Whatever criticism the “journalists” in Washington are getting today, they brought it on themselves.
Not shown nor considered are all the journalists in the world who were busy doing their jobs and may not even own tuxedos and evening gowns.
Eamon Javers, a CNBC correspondent, reminded us of that fact on Twitter Monday by noting this video, released by the FBI last week, of reporters, a congressman, staffers, and others preparing to leave the Guyana cult home, Jonestown, on November 18, 1978.
Reporters had accompanied Rep. Leo Ryan on an investigation into the cult.
Men loyal to cult leader Jim Jones arrived to try to kill them all.
The NBC cameraman who took the video, Bob Brown, was among those murdered. So was NBC correspondent Don Harris and San Francisco Examiner photographer Greg Robinson. And so was the congressman.
Javers’ father, Ron (shown in the floppy hat), a managing editor with Newsweek, was shot, escaped into the jungle.
The congressman was in Guyana to protect his constituents – Americans who had families in his congressional district. The journalists were there to find out what was going on and to tell the truth about it: Real news.
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) April 30, 2018
Everyone was jumpy. They could feel things spinning out of control. You can see my dad &Tim Reiterman frisking people at the plane – improvising security at direction of @RepSpeier, who was a young congressional staffer. They were worried someone might have a gun. Someone did.
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) April 30, 2018
Some were killed instantly and some were wounded and unable to move. My dad, Jackie Speier and others were shot and wounded but able to make a harrowing escape into the jungle. The gunmen murdered the wounded who were not able to run for it.
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) April 30, 2018
This was just one day in one jungle in one part of the world. There is always be evil – it’s part of humanity. But we are fortunate that there are journalists willing to face it and expose it for what it is. That’s real news.
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) April 30, 2018
It was just a few months later that ABC reporter Bill Stewart was executed while covering a civil war in Nicaragua as his camera crew watched.
It’s not hard to find similar video. Reporters have been dying doing their jobs courageously for generations.
There wasn’t an abundance of courage in a Washington ballroom over the weekend, but that doesn’t define the business.
These people do.
Shah Marai, a very brave photographer who captured every single side of life in Afghanistan conflicts, is also killed in today’s Kabul suicide attack
شاه مری عکاس شجاع افغانستان که برای پوشش حمله انتحاری امروز کابل رفته بود، خودش طعمه حمله دوم شد و دوربینش برای همیشه زمین خورد pic.twitter.com/uvislWhxo2— Kawoon Khamoosh (@KawoonKhamoosh) April 30, 2018
VIDEO: A selection of photos by AFP chief photographer in Kabul Shah Marai, who was killed when two suicide blasts ripped through the city on Monday pic.twitter.com/XSh2G3qPHj
— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 30, 2018
Related: ‘A dark day’: Tributes for journalists killed in Kabul (Al Jazeera)
(h/t: Paul Tosto)
