This 84 year old well-known retired Canadian foreign correspondent provides an insider’s perspective of world events in this compelling autobiography. The first chapter is morbidly depressing as he covers the 84-85 devastating famine in northern Ethiopia, killing millions, but becomes somewhat uplifting as he shames the rich world into action with his coverage.
Starting out as a newspaper journalist, he morphed into one of CBC’s, and briefly, NBC’s foremost TV foreign correspondents, covering crises, wars, famines, and genocides in five continents in the late 60s to 2000, mostly in the eighties and nineties. He seemed to be attracted to war zones and took great risks to get the behind-the -scenes stories, resulting in several close calls and leading to frightening flashbacks and what was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as a conversion reaction but also must have elements of PTSD.
Interviews with such people as Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger, and Nelson Mandela provide rich context. His many friends and coworkers included the late Barbara Frum, Mike Duffy, Tom Brokaw, Jean Drapeau, Joe Schlesinger, and Lord Conrad Black. Even when Black’s political views moved to the right to support Trump, while the author’s moved leftward, they remain lifelong friends.
I greatly admire the dedicated media folk such as the author who risk their lives to provide meaningful insight into a chaotic world. This book highlights the critical role of independent media.
One interesting quote, perhaps not the best, but it struck me: “ It shook me again how easy it is to step over a moral line in war, when the deadly becomes routine.”
This book is a must-read lesson in 20th century history. I may get it on to our book club’s list.
5/5
Thanks, Mary M.
