Under Fire: Journalists in Combat

Two reporters died covering World War I battles. In World War II, the toll climbed to 63. But in the world’s various invasions, rebellions and conflicts of the past two decades, more than 900 journalists have died, indicative of both the demand for more and more vivid coverage and the growing tendency of warring factions to treat reporters as enemies. If it accomplishes nothing else, Under Fire: Journalists in Combat makes the indelible point that every richly detailed dispatch we read and every kinetic, up-close video or photograph that we see is the product of a journalist’s incredible bravery -– or craziness, or both. But Under Fire accomplishes more. We hear from reporters and photographers who’ve spent years bounding from one hotspot to another: Afghanistan, Somalia, El Salvador. In forthright, sometimes emotional interviews, they give us insight into what keeps them going despite the death and destruction they witness, the wounds and traumatic stress they experience. “There is some terrible love of it which pulls you back to revisit again and again,” admits Anthony Loyd of the Times of London. Another reporter, Christina Lamb of the Sunday Times UK, speaks of cell-phoning home from warzones to a 6-year-old daughter. For its frank consideration of how we get the news of war and what getting it does to the reporters, Under Fire: Journalists in Combat receives a Peabody Award.