Capturing the News: Three Decades of Reporting Crisis and Conflict

Notes

175 Notes Most of this book is based on my memory of events, especially the details of how I and others covered news stories. Wherever possible I have tried to make up for memory lapses or distorted recollections by looking up dates and facts, and by consulting the journalists who were with me, although sadly enough some of them are now deceased. A special note about quotations: One thing that bothers me in reading an author’s memoir or autobiography is seeing direct quotes from people in conversation, although I know that the author had made no audio recording of that conversation and that whatever notes the author jotted down were not necessarily verbatim. But when I went to write this book, I realized that if I wanted to catch the flavor of conversations, I, too, would have to put quotation marks around comments made by me and others, even if I did not have a transcript of what was said to make sure that every word in quotes was exactly what that person said. So I plead guilty to doing the very thing that bothers me in others. My only defense is that I am confessing it here, and I am cautioning readers that the conversations quoted in this book are my best recollection of what was said, rather than verbatim transcripts. Prologue: Beirut 1981 For a description of the difficulties and dangers of reporting from Beirut in the 1980s, see Robert Fisk’s article, “Please, Sam, We’ll Pay You Not To Play It Again,” in The Independent , June 2, 1993. See also“Reporter for ABC Killed in Beirut,”Washington Post, July 15, 1981. Chapter One No Building Collapsed For background on covering Soviet dissidents including Andrei Amalrik, see Bernard Gwertzman’s“News From Moscow,”NewYork Times, May 20,1971.See also Harlow Robinson ’s“Dissident’s Window on Soviet Life,”Christian Science Monitor, July 9, 1982, a review of Amalrik’s Notes of a Revolutionary. See also John Leonard,“Books of the Times,” New York Times, July 7, 1982, a review of the same Amalrik book. News of his death, and a tribute to him, were published in “Andrei Amalrik, Emigre, Is Dead; Predicted Soviet Breakup By ’84,” New York Times, November 13, 1980. A report on Pravda attacking me and Ennio Caretto may be found in “Russia May Prosecute Foreign Protesters,” Associated Press, January 21, 1970, as retrieved from the Virgin Islands Daily News, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=757&dat=19700121 &id=PO4JAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xUQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5788,1260648. For details of the defection of Stalin’s daughter, see “1967: Stalin’s daughter defects to the West,” in On This Day, BBC Web site, retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday /hi/dates/stories/march/9/newsid_2801000/2801709.stm. Chapter Two Christmas Presents One report put the total number of Solidarity activists detained in internment camps at 10,131. See “For Most Poles, the Future Looks as Gray as the Past,” by John Kifner, New York Times, December 12, 1982. Chapter Three The Pope Has VD For a colorful description of the early days at CNN, see Reese Schonfeld’s Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN (New York: HarperCollins, 2001). In it he has some kind words about me, which I probably don’t deserve but will gladly accept. Chapter Four Line of Death The incident with the chartered jet flying near the “Line of Death” is reported by Eleanor Randolph in“The Networks’Libyan Fly-By; Plane Escorted from Combat Zone,” Washington Post, March 26, 1986. The bomb explosion at the Alexandre Hotel and life in Beirut during the Israeli bombing are described in “Crossing the Green Line; A Maze of War Devastation Separates Armed Forces of Two Beiruts,” by William Branigin, in the Washington Post, August 6, 1982. Many journalists have written about life in the Commodore Hotel in West Beirut. For example, see Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem (New York: Anchor, 1990). Chapter Five Welcome to Tripoli For a summary of the PanAm 103 incident and its aftermath, see“Libya Admits Culpability in Crash of Pan Am Plane,” by Felicity Barringer, New York Times, August 16, 2003. The 1986 U.S. bombing of Libya is covered in “U.S. Jets Hit ‘Terrorist Centers’ in Libya; Reagan Warns of New Attacks If Needed; One Plane Missing in Raids on 5 Targets ,” by Bernard Weinraub, New York Times, April 15, 1986. See also “Pentagon Details 2-Pronged Attack,” by Michael...