The Adventures of Chester: A toast to heroic journalists!

David Halberstam has written a piece in the Columbia Journalism Review that lauds Peter Arnett's reportage in Vietnam. It ends with this:

Even as I write there are in some parts of the world young men and women going out every day, and doing something difficult and complicated, something that takes a surprisingly varied array of talents

Hmm. Who might that be? Warriors?

— the ability to write quickly, a rare, almost intuitive sense of politics, and of course a certain kind of courage, the courage to stand up to powerful people who are always trying to bend you and intimidate you. When I was a young man in Saigon I was privileged enough to witness such work and to see a great institution at its best, at a moment in a democracy when it mattered.

Commentary

Will these memes ever die? How long can the glory years of the press in Vietnam keep their minds afire? Halberstam's tribute to Arnett is completely without any mention of the coverage of the Tet offensive -- was that a great institution at its best? It was certainly at a moment in a democracy when it mattered. Maybe Arnett was never tarnished -- or blessed -- with participation in that holy event.

Posted by Chester on November 6, 2006 1:57 PM to The Adventures of Chester