Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2024 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Risks And Rewards Of Reporting In A War Zone

Journalist James Foley while covering the civil war in Aleppo, Syria, November 2012.
Nicole Tung
/
AP
Journalist James Foley while covering the civil war in Aleppo, Syria, November 2012.

I once told my Uncle Sheldon about what a day is like when you cover a war.

What the hell would you want to do that for?

I'd just come back from Sarajevo or Kosovo, and described how the city had no trees, because they'd been chopped down for heat. How people had to eat grass because they had no food, and how artillery shells whistled and crashed all night, scorching the sky, and how a couple of times shots from snipers came close enough to our heads to sizzle in our ears as we raced through town to file our stories.

My uncle, who had been a U.S. Marine in World War II, just heard me through and asked, "What the hell would you want to do that for?"

The murder of James Foley by the Islamic State prompts that question for many people.

There are lots of jobs in journalism that don't involve risking your life, especially when these days any man or woman with a mobile phone can send news to millions of people. When a tornado strikes or a bomb explodes, people on the scene now bring word of it in words, images, and sounds before professional reporters can even reach for their shoes.

So why do journalists still go to dangerous places?

One reason (and no honest answer can avoid this) is professional reward. Covering wars can win attention, respect and awards in a crowded, competitive field, and the reporters acquire a matchless experience that can stamp and propel their careers. This certainly happened to me.

War reporting is also enthralling, usually more involved than covering, say, a county zoning meeting. You see life illuminated in the glare of death, good and evil, fear and bravery, louts and heroes, all in the same place — often all in the same person. It can leave you depressed, but also elated.

As Jim Foley told an audience at the Medill School of Journalism in 2011, "When you see something really violent, it does a strange thing to you. It doesn't always repel you. Sometimes, as you know, it draws you close ... It's a strange sort of force."

But this may be a good week to remember that this human mix of motives can also lead to good and noble work. Foley was once a teacher who worked with juvenile offenders. As a freelance reporter, he fought to work in fierce, treacherous places to tell the stories of people who might otherwise not be seen or heard.

Work that throws light on dark places, and can open minds and reach into hearts, is worth the dedication of a human life.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.