RIP for Hetherington, Restrepo Shooter

Tim Hetherington's reported death in action has devastated his war correspondent colleagues and the American troops he documented; Chris Hondros was also mortally wounded by mortars. Guy Martin, a Briton affiliated with the Panos photo agency, and Michael Christopher Brown - were wounded by shrapnel but expected to survive.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/20/2177314/doctor-journalist-killed-in-libyan.html#ixzz1K6dk4GJV
Reports are still sketchy. Update: see the New York Times coverage for further information. Here's one obit from the Wall Street Journal blog:

Tim Hetherington, co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Restrepo,” has been killed in Libya. Several news outlets, including ABC News, have reported on his death, and Vanity Fair, where he worked as a contributing photographer, tweeted that his passing had been confirmed.

The 41-year-old Hetherington apparently was the victim of a mortar attack in Misrata that wounded several other journalists.

“Restrepo” tracked a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan, and was co-directed by Sebastian Junger, author of “The Perfect Storm.”

Hetherington began his career in photography in 1997. His assignments took him to Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia and other places.

His last tweet reads “In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO.”

Three Cups of Tea - With a Grain of Salt

The air must get rather thin up there.
Jon Kraukauer vs Greg Mortenson, Mountaineer vs Mountaineer, who's gonna fall first?

This author rage seems more than a tempest in a teacup. The accuracy of Krakauer's own book, "Into Thin Air", was once disputed by other mountaineers, too. But this journalist-alpinist seems to be driven by the ferocity of a man duped. (JK had once donated $75,000 to GM's outfit, the Central Asian Institute.)

Should readers (and wannabe donors) be charitable? A career is imploding at warp speed...because people love a legend, but hate to be hoodwinked, even a little. And where is the well-remunerated ghost, David Oliver Relin, in all this? Back in Portland keeping mum. And keeping half the royalties of the bestseller, 3 Cups of Tea too, it appears.

The hero-making process really began about eight years ago:
Kevin Fedarko in Parade Magazine, extolled Mortenson the Montana mountain man who builds schools for Muslim girls in the Hindu Kush. The heartrending article was published just a couple weeks after the US invaded Iraq and the reader response was overwhelmingly generous. American individuals could make more of a difference than the dread war machine- and the force of change would be schooling village women.

Two ghost-written books, hundreds and hundreds of appearances on the road, and a multi-million dollar charity outreach followed. Some schools were erected in the flyblown spots where girls, especially, lack literacy. And a celebrity with almost a cult following emerged, hailed by the Pentagon. The tale has touched many. Schoolchildren donated pennies for peace.

Flash forward.

Krakauer's devastating long screed ran on the new Byliner.com website. Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson,
Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way. This made a huge impact everywhere, as a follow up to the "60 Minutes" segment on Greg Mortenson and the Central Asian Institute. (These initials are too much like "CIA" for my liking, and most of the schools are located in South Asia, not Central Asia. But such quibbling is beside the point.) Central Asia Institute's Mission: To promote and provide community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. Was this mission accomplished or compromised?

Here's an official statement from Greg Mortenson about the charges leveled against him. His home state, Montana, now has launched an inquiry into the charity's finances, however belatedly.

Outside Online's post-expose interview with Greg Mortenson about the "60 Minutes" expose shows him squirming a bit, especially compared to Fedarko's paen in 2010...but does not press him hard about the dubious kidnap. "We Never Kidnapped Greg Mortenson", one of the Pakistanis falsely accused of being a Taliban abductor tells Newsweek.

The charity and Viking, the publisher, rushed statements online. Furthermore, Viking announced its own forthcoming investigation. Self defense? Spin control?

The charity navigator, which ranks NGOs on admin costs vs program costs and has awarded CAI Four Stars, released a donor advisory, flashing red on their webpage, after the 60 Minutes expose aired on Sunday night:

A similar website, called Charity Watch, raised alarms last year, which may have helped tip off the CBS investigation. See here

If this expose prevents people from setting up or giving to vanity NGOs, that's some small good - providing that charismatic people who are inspired to do good works can find experienced organizations who have a good track record and audited accounts. (Red tape is not only for the hassle factor.) One senior journalist suggested that

"Three Cups of Tea" belongs to an outside category of inspirational nonfiction in which feel-good parables take precedence over strict truthfulness. Its object is to present a reassuring picture of the world as a place... where all people are fundamentally the same underneath their cultural differences, where ordinary, well-meaning Americans can "make a difference" in the lives of poor Central Asians and fend off terrorism at the same time. Heartwarming anecdotes come with the territory and as with the happily-ever-after endings of romantic comedies, everyone tacitly agrees not to examine them too closely. "Three Cups of Tea" is a wonderful tool for eliciting donations for the very worthy cause of educating Afghan and Pakistani children, which is its purpose.

It's feel-good fiction, not reportage. Uh-huh. But follow the money....We all must be a bit more cynical now. Should some stories be too good to check? Nope. Not if donors' cheques are involved.

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Correction of the Week

"The Post incorrectly attributed a quote to Toni Braxton in an article published on March 25. Braxton did not say: ‘I have a big-ass house, three cars and I fly first class all around the world. Some say I have the perfect life.’” - New York Post

Hat tip to the Columbia Journalism Review

Gadaffi loyalists try to muzzle foreign press

More than 70 attacks on the media covering the war in Libya have been committed since revolutionary fervor hit the oil rich North African country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which is keeping a log, linked here

These include “two fatalities, a gunshot injury, 41 detentions, 11 assaults, two attacks on news facilities, and the jamming of Al Jazeera and Al Hurra transmissions,” the committee stated. Additionally, “at least six local journalists are missing amid speculation they are in the custody of security forces.” Others from 20 different news organizations have been deported , despite an official "invitation" to be accredited in Tripoli. Two American freelance journalists and two photographers were grabbed today. James Foley, of the GlobalPost, Clare Morgana Gillis, an American freelancer writing for The Atlantic; Manu Brabo, a Spanish photographer; and Anton Hammerl, a South African photographer are believed to be held prisoner by loyalists.

Elizabeth Taylor RIP

Liz.

February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011
considered to be the "first victim of the paparazzi".

Vicious Fighting in Libya: CNN vs Fox News!

War reporters sometimes war, sometimes err, even on air!
A supposed scoop by Fox's Jennifer Griffin about British missiles enraged CNN reporter Nic Robertson, who went ballistic on air. Murdoch's plucky Pentagon correspondent reported that her sources said a followup British airstrike on Gadaffi's compound had to be called off because crews from CNN and Reuters tv were in the way yesterday, and unwittingly were used by the Libyan government as human shields. She said the Brits only were able to release two of seven warheads because the journalists were in the way. Later she corrected her report, and acknowledged that Fox News had in fact sent one person along. The Daily Mail and other tabloids repeated that "SAS spotters" called off strikes after seeing the western journalists, and the report was quickly regurgitated by the Agence France Presse. It has since come to light that Fox News sent a security guard with a video camera on the official press bus while its correspondent Steve Harrigan stayed in a Tripoli hotel room in order to broadcast live-- rather than "be duped". Was this guard considered more expendable than a staffer? Certainly it is a distressing management decision.
(The cable news smackdown continued, with one of Huffington Post's paid phone interviewers filing response from the much-maligned Harrigan.

A busload of approximately 40 western journalists had stayed for a half hour at the compound, where Gadaffi was conspicuously absent, Robertson said. On board was at least one Murdoch reporter, from the London Times, as well as the security guard with a flip-cam or a cell phone. Press reports that a number of Libyan civilians, including children and women, have volunteered to act as human shields are very widespread. Presumably, even unwitting human shields would not have been allowed to leave, but be forced to stay in place. A British wing commander interviewed by the Press Association said of the Libya operation: "It went very well; it went as we briefed it." This account appears to contradict Griffin's defense scoop out of Washington, however.

What gets lost in all the rancor between Fox and CNN tv channels is the fact that any western journalist who flew straight to Tripoli would have been accredited by Gaddafi's government. The accredited media would be offered a chance to ride along on some official tours to get soundbites of the government line and photos of the official targets struck. (This tour of the compound, also bombed in the 80s, has been standard Libyan practice for the past quarter century!) Most media reps aware that they might be seen to be manipulated in this way, and would include any official quotes as balance to whatever else they might ferret out through investigative reporting. Some journalists had hesitated to go into Tripoli because of this ethical dilemma of providing safer but possibly slanted reports. Other reporters and photographers who crossed over from the chaos of Egypt and had no official stamp in their passports would be considered illegal entrants, and subject to deportation. (Or worse: capture as suspected spies if found behind rebel lines, as happened to 4 NY Times journalists, and thirteen others.)

It would be helpful if the antagonistic "moonbats" and "wingnuts" were more interested in the truth about the West's third war front in the Islamic world than in discrediting one another. It cheapens everyone involved.

Ordeal ends for 4 Captive Hacks; Firefights and Shelling continue in Libya

UPDATE: A cautionary tale of Libya. The brutal captivity of the New York Times Four, as told by themselves. A must-read.

The dangers of the pursuit of journalism are underlined in an op-ed piece in today's New York Times. After the paper's four captive journalists in Libya were released to a Turkish envoy and then drove out through Tunisia, some details of their ordeal are trickling out. It was a hellish five days for these pros, who were caught behind enemy lines at a pro-Gaddafi checkpoint, nearly executed, and detained incommunicado for several days. Their driver is still unaccounted for. Photographer Lynsey Addario, small in stature but tough in outlook, recounted some of the harrowing events: she was subjected to sexual mauling and whispered threats. Taylor Hicks also spoke about their travails. More details surely will be forthcoming as the writers, Anthony Shadid and Stephen Farrell, pen their narratives. They are relatively lucky: the Committee to Protect Journalists reminds us that at least 852 journalists have been killed on the job since 1992. Exceprts from the Times:

As they were being pulled from the car, rebels fired on the checkpoint, sending the four running for their lives.

“You could see the bullets hitting the dirt,” Mr. Shadid said.

All four made it safely behind a small, one-room building, where they tried to take cover. But the soldiers had other plans. They told all four to empty their pockets and ordered them on the ground. And that is when they thought they were seconds from death.

“I heard in Arabic, ‘Shoot them,’ ” Mr. Shadid said. “And we all thought it was over.”

Then another soldier spoke up. “One of the others said: ‘No, they’re American. We can’t shoot them,’ ” Mr. Hicks said.

The soldiers grabbed whatever they could get their hands on to tie up their prisoners: wire, an electrical cord from a home appliance, a scarf. One removed Ms. Addario’s shoes, pulled out the laces and used them to bind her ankles. Then one punched her in the face and laughed.

“Then I started crying,” she recalled. “And he was laughing more.” One man grabbed her breasts, the beginning of a pattern of disturbing behavior she would experience from her captors over the next 48 hours.

“There was a lot of groping,” she said. “Every man who came in contact with us basically felt every inch of my body short of what was under my clothes.”

Their captors held them in Ajdabiya until the fighting with the rebels died down. Soldiers put the four in a vehicle and drove them out of the city around 2 a.m. One threatened to decapitate Mr. Hicks. Another stroked Ms. Addario’s head and told her repeatedly she was going to die.

“He was caressing my head in this sick way, this tender way, saying: ‘You’re going to die tonight. You’re going to die tonight,’ ” she said.

On the third day they were on the move again, this time to an airfield. Mr. Shadid, who speaks Arabic, had overheard one of the soldiers saying something about a plane, and the four assumed they would be flown somewhere. As they were loaded on the plane they were blindfolded and their hands were bound tightly with plastic handcuffs.

“I could hear Anthony at this point yelling ‘Help me!’ ” Mr. Hicks said, “which I learned later was because he had no feeling in his hands.” In a rare show of mercy, a soldier loosened the cuffs.

They landed on Thursday in Tripoli, where they were handed over to Libyan defense officials. They were transferred to a safe house, where they said they were treated well. They were each allowed a brief phone call.
That was the first time since their capture two and a half days earlier that their whereabouts became known to their families and colleagues at The Times.

Their disappearance had kicked off an intensive search effort. The Times canvassed hospitals and morgues, beginning a grim process-of-elimination search. The paper also turned to a variety of people on the ground who might have heard or seen something — local residents, security contractors for Western businesses, workers for nongovernmental organizations. It also notified American diplomats.

Three days of diplomatic wrangling ensued, followed by allied airstrikes. The ugly incident shows some of the difficulties of the 24/7 news cycle, when rolling deadlines make it difficult to determine how long to stay in order to cover unfolding news. This unfortunate quartet survived.

Flash: Getty photographer Joe Raedle, and two wire journalists from Agence France Presse, Dave Clark and Roberto Schmidt, had been missing for three days. They were captured by Libyan loyalist troops and were also released in Tripoli tonight.