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Subscribe to RSSWillie Geist, Mike Barnicle and the Morning Joe panel remember New York Times foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid, who died Thursday in Syria of an apparent asthma attack.
Anthony Shadid, the New York Times correspondent who died in Syria on Thursday, was better than the rest of us. He wasn’t the fastest to a story, or the biggest daredevil or the most technical with a satellite phone. Sure, he was good at all those things. But he was absolutely brilliant at something else. Shadid could hear the story.
He could feel it in the tips of his fingers. He could do what may be impossible. He could make war subtle.
This is what I mean. During the often overlooked, ferociously dangerous 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, reporters in southern Lebanon generally rushed to the bombing sites. The faster we got there, the fresher and more compelling our stories and pictures would be. And there were incredibility compelling stories. In the first three weeks of the conflict, Israel dropped as much tonnage of explosives on southern Lebanon as it used in the 1973 Mideast war.
NYT: Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Shadid dies in Syria
Hezbollah fired rockets indiscriminately into Israeli cities, driving thousands into shelters. We rushed and ran and sometimes even dodged and the world watched and read. Anthony covered it differently. He’d go out in the morning and find some tiny village, tucked away on a hillside, where none of us thought to go. He’d find his story in the details, not the fireballs. It takes a sensitive ear to do that. War is a loud place, full of emotions, explosions, gore, fatigue, pity, outrage and rage. But Anthony managed to pick out the quiet notes, and hear the melody playing sotto voce under the cacophony.
I say "us" because there is an "us" in the business, which is really more of a life than a career. There is a small – tragically, dwindling – brotherhood and sisterhood of reporters who cover conflict, specifically conflict in the Middle East. Anthony was one of our founding members. When I first moved to Cairo in 1996, the first person I was told to look up was Anthony. “He’s got a good feeling of what’s going on over there,” I was well advised. Anthony and I were together in Baghdad during the 2003 US bombing. Baghdad for all of 'us' was a defining period, an extended nightmare of car bombings, flag ceremonies, kidnappings and military acronyms. I last saw Anthony a few months ago. He looked great. He was in a good place.
Rachel Maddow reports the sad news of the passing of New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid.
He was relaxed and happy. We were at the airport in Tunisia. We’d just covered a year of the Arab Spring. It was different from all those years in Baghdad. It was interesting. It was complicated. It was big history. It needed a subtle ear. It was perfect for Anthony.
It was his time. I am so sorry his time was cut short. I’ll miss his voice. I’ll miss his compassion. There’s so much more to reporting than just bullets, bombs, rebels and ballots, and nobody knew that more than Anthony. Rest in peace, brother.
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what a fine tribute to a fine man...may he rest in peace....a kind of lasting peace he was never able to observe !
i just cant believe i wont read more from him ....the storeys always made me think and sometimes cry. this is what the world gives us and what it took away. how empty it feels with out his written words.
This is so sad, my condolences to his family! Here in OKC, OK we are all so proud of him!
He should have kept his ass at home and his nose out of Syria's business. I don't care about Syria, Egypt, or any of the the rest of them. We've lost thousands of our young men and women trying to give them freedom and they piss on us and blow us up. Let them kill each other. Then we can go in and get the oil we discovered, pump it from the wells we dug and process it in the plants we built, with AMERICAN and BRITISH taxpayers' money.
Translated: I didn't read the story...
Mom got a cat scan of your brain lately?
I agree with Jeff, you must not have read the story. He died from an asthma attach. That could have happened anywhere in the world. My condolences to his family.
We are in sorrow for Anthony's passing. Rest in peace. Condolences to his family.
Finding a good reporter that reports the news is so rare. He will be missed.
All we have left are the ones that just give there opinions and not the news.
Wow Patricia... Actually we haven't lost any men in Egypt or Syria (besides reporters) because we had nothing to do with those revolutions, which started from within by their own people and are the only ones that have any chance of succeeding. Also, he wasn't sticking his nose in their business, he was reporting on very important stories, modern history being made and your response is to basically call him an as*hole? What is wrong with you? This man put his life on the line for decades to bring YOU judgmental jerks the kind of stories that don't often get told, perspectives that aren't often shared with those outside those countries. How dare you tarnish this mans life and work by saying he should have kept his ass home. If you don't care then why are you even commenting? Show some damn respect for this important man and thank him for his service. You make me sick.
43 ia a very young age at which to die. I'm not as familiar with Mr. Shadid as some of you since I do not read the Times or watch MSNBC but I believe he was a person who loved his work and did an exceptional job of it. It must be a terrible loss to his family and friends and they have my deepest sympathy.
The news media can scarcely stand to lose any good reporters considering what passes for "journalism" these days. The writer who can get the real down to earth story from the people, not just quotes from so-called experts, is hard to come by. I wish there were more of them.
I was devastated to learn of Anthony Shadid's death. His loss is a huge loss to the world's understanding not only of the Middle East but of the nuts and bolts of international politics and of how real human beings cope with the events that many of us only understand vaguely from the headlines--or not at all, as is clear from at least one of these comments. His was the gold standard of journalism, and by all accounts he was also a remarkably fine human being. I look forward to reading his soon-to-published memoir, "House of Stone", though with sadness that he is gone...
Patricia, your lack of understanding of the region and its history is remarkable. And what you're suggesting is exactly what France, the UK, and Russia did to the area after the end of WWI and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Then we, the US and the UK, allowed and pushed for the World Zionist Organization to move Russian and and eastern European jews to settle the area in force after WWII. Please pick up a history book. Here I'll give you one to start with from my Middle Eastern History class from my undergraduate days. The title is "A History of the Modern Middle East" (catchy, huh? lol) by William L. Cleveland. That's a good start. Anyway, have a great weekend!
Patricia, your lack of understanding of the region and its history is remarkable. And what you're suggesting is exactly what France, the UK, and Russia did to the area after the end of WWI and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Then we, the US and the UK, allowed and pushed for the World Zionist Organization to move Russian and and eastern European jews to settle the area in force after WWII. Please pick up a history book. Here I'll give you one to start with from my Middle Eastern History class from my undergraduate days. The title is "A History of the Modern Middle East" (catchy, huh? lol) by William L. Cleveland. That's a good start. Anyway, have a great weekend!
Who is we? You do not think the zionists themselves lobbied for this? I know that I personally dont care about Isreal, or the middle east in general. This is not "our" doing, this is "their" doing. The American government is bought by the highest bidder, and zionists have a lot of it.
What a HUGE loss, he was a superb writer
His accounts of the Iraq war were brilliantly written
"Absolutely brilliant"? What scale do they use?
Beautiful tribute from an equally brilliant and fearless journalist, Richard Engel. Telling the stories of those deeply affected by the Arab spring puts a human face on the news, and a human face on the world. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Richard, Martha, David, Anthony and so many other brave journalists who go where the action is to keep us in touch with the world. Thank you for all your caring, selfless work.
ditto + he will be with you Richard! And again, thank you for your impressive work in every way!
Requiescat in Pace, Anthony. Journalists who put themselves in harms way do so with full knowledge of their undertaking. Asthma be damned. And the current Syrian government also!