I had intended to write another segment-by-segment Maddow blog yesterday, but Rachel having done(yet another) gutsy thing and going to the International Zone with Richard Engel changed my plans because Engel's segment turned out to be so exciting and personally revealing. I really got a sense of what being a foreign correspondent is like that I never had, even from John Hockenberry's excellent memoir Moving Violations(although that is a fine read, given that Hockenberry is a "brother" and everything. I especially love the account of the Iranian guiding Hockenberry's wheelchair while chanting "Death to America!" in Arabic. You can't make that shit up, or, you know, considering the scandal at my college, you could, but you shouldn't.)
Richard Engel was among the many reporters and correspondents staying atthe Palestine Hotel during the early days of the invasion, which a frequent MSNBC viewer such as myself would expect, as Engel has been in many world hotspots over the years, such as Somalia and Afghanistan. I'd expect the boyish jokes with Rachel about her "travel agent" because Engel makes it look easy. I'd almost never guess that he ever felt fear in these places where it is hard to imagine feeling anything else. Engel's eye for details generally enlivens his little travelogues of the damned beyond what you'd expect from war footage(is it ethnocentric that I was surprised the reporters ate spaghetti instead of hummus?)
The thing that made this particular segment so arresting(video's at the link) is Engel's candor about the mix of bravado and "fatalism" that propels a war correspondent through his days in the combat zone. Engel candidly admitted that some days he expected to die, and yet Rachel's sensitive yet probing questions kept it from appearing like a Barbara Walters special moment. I know I'll appreciate his coverage that much more with a fuller understanding of the sacrifice it represents.
Yet, Engel has been lucky. Over the course of this conflict, many journalists have paid the ultimate price No, every story doesn't have to be worth dying for, but as combat in Iraq winds down, it's worth remembering that some are.
I can't help contrasting this with Katie Couric, who apparently feared risking her sweetheart reputation byasking the right questions about Iraq. Not to single Katie out, but she does seem to get her guts when it'stoo late.
Still, she looks like Lois Lane next to her colleague Charles Gibson who said "It's not our job to debate them...it's our job to ask the questions."
In what respect, Charlie?