The Balkan wars were in the last years before internet domination.
News organisations have been filleted since.
Far fewer costly location reporters, many more commentators.
Thus: fewer unique sources, but infinitely more outlets.
Result: mostly opinionated drivel.
Last edited 2 years ago by Brendan O'Leary
J Bryant
2 years ago
As an American, I’ve criticized many of Justin Webb’s pieces on Unherd about the USA because I felt, despite him having been a long-time reporter in the US, he never really connected with the USA. His articles never rang true.
This article rings true, at least to my ear. He writes as someone who really has been there and done it, and observed his peers doing their difficult and dangerous job.
I suspect war reporting is being gradually supplanted by ordinary people with cell phones recording events on the ground as they happen. That’s all you need nowadays: a cell phone and an internet connection. I vividly recall the massive explosion in Beirut last year (ok, not a war, but still…). Someone on their balcony with a cellphone recorded a video of that enormous explosion as it happened and there was a ton of footage of injured people being carried on the shoulders of passers-by to the nearest hospital. That impromptu reporting was immediate and gripping even without dramatic commentary provided by the likes of Kate Adie.
I certainly agree with the author that organizations are being purged these days of all eccentrics and others who don’t wholeheartedly buy into the dominant narrative. I suspect, however, that situation may not last forever. We live in a weird world, and the weird will out.
Last edited 2 years ago by J Bryant
David Uzzaman
2 years ago
I’ve struggled to believe any war reporting to camera since the wonderful “Drop the dead donkey” series. Damien Day gave the game away.
I particularly liked the ham sandwich dangling before the starving child sketch (if you remember it) – journalistic cynicism unveiled
Davy Humerme
2 years ago
Thanks Justin a great article with qualities sadly lacking in modern broadcast journalism. Namely, humility and humour. Nowadays with both Covid and Climate Change, we are subjected to histrionic hand-wringing and scare faced sanctimony. Science journalists in particular sound like PR agents for the public health bureaucracy , or the green lobby. Never a statistic questioned or an assertion queried. To corrupt a phrase they declaim and we despair.
Tim Bartlett
2 years ago
I miss Rober Fisk. He was the only one who, when presented by some ridiculous lie by our government or army commander, would go out in the field and record the serial number of the NATO munition that had butchered that weeks civilian convoy. BBC would just parrot the lie, then and now.
He was a liar, a plagiarist and a propogandist for the worst regimes and organisations who often didn’t go out to collect the scoop himself but rip it off younger journalists.
At the beginning her was good and then after Iraq War 1990 appeared to lose it.
Tom Lewis
2 years ago
Funny you should mention Kate Adie and the First Gulf War, the reports I heard, from soldiers (mates) who found themselves in the ‘company’ of Kate, out in the desert, were not overly impressed. Haughty, contemptuous and having a habit of looking down her nose at people that she considered uninteresting or of no use to her.
Other soldiers had different oppinions. In her biography ” “The Kindness of Strangers” she is respectful of the military in Bosnia and The Gulf War 1990. I would interested in why different soldiers had different opinions of Adie.
K Adie’s biography highlights the decline in the BBC with Birt with his managers in London telling Adie and Bell how they pereceived the conflict in Bosnia rather than listening to those in the field. Sir Mark Tully appeared to have the same oppinion of Birt as Adie and Bell.
In general what we have in many organisations which decline is directors with minimal or no field experience telling those in the field how to do their job.Birt, d**k , etc peas in the pod.
I would suggest it is not purging eccentrics; it is purging worldly wise people with shrewd judgement and backbone and replacing them with effete clueless invertebrates.
N T
2 years ago
Wasn’t there a hurricane report several years ago where the reporter was hanging on for dear life, and in the background, some bloke was just walking?
That was the Weather Channel. They could dramatize a puff of wind.
Matt B
2 years ago
Interesting, but this is about wars and mostly Beeb bods, whereas the question applies also to many other types of journalism (notably investigative).
For wars, the perceived lack of sustained good reporting (with notable exceptions in camera and TV images vs hotel drop-in talking heads) has been accompanied by several trends beyond the Beeb’s failure to use its huge coffers to develop talent (perhaps because the model is out-dated?):
-Proliferation of slow-burn conflicts and notably civil wars (too many, complex and with western complicity);
-Persistence of wars over longer periods (news and sympathy fatigue);
-Rise of pervasive.narrative warfare (inc ISIS) to mislead/shock and make complicit news readers (revulsion);
-Culture wars at home over fact/truth impinging on report “acceptability” and “offence” (dull);
– Rising risk/aversity and embedding;
– News and outlet capture by govts, organizations and egos slanting even non-war issues (bias).
War in general is now more hybrid, dispersed and less kinetic, meaning field reporters are less relevant/central, and ill-equipped or unable to track/join the dots in time for short attention spans and deadlines.
The internet further opened news to opinion and fake news but also to reporters and other people beyond the western prototype: brave people (not necessarily formal reporters) with much to lose. The best of these (and agency reporters doing the day to day hard work) often go “unreported” or nameless (even when dead).
Even the best war (TV) reporters have struggled to meet insatiable employer or agency demands for “more, now” – and arguably this killed some of them. Miguel Gil Moreno…
Last edited 2 years ago by Matt B
Matt Hindman
2 years ago
If you want to find out about a fascinating war reporter I would look up Albertus Johannes Venter. Journalist, writer, mercenary, he knew how to handle a Kalashnikov as well as a camera. Venter was one of the few people to truly cover African conflicts in the second half of the 20th century.
Venter was a mercenary, period, who wrote books (good or bad is immaterial here). Times change and you cannot really be both a hired gun and reporter and yet credible in both camps.
For reporters, generally, carrying weapons is a really dumb idea and simply makes others targets. Know how to handle, for sure, but gun-toting mercenary hacks are no model. There are far more African reporters who never stooped to a gun for access or veracity. For a brave photographer without the “I’m packing Dude” bullshit: Corinne Dufka.
I do not care about your moral preaching. His work more than speaks for itself and is still considered more than credible in both camps.
As for Corinne Dufka, I remember her. Human Rights Watch b***h standing in the middle of a refugee camp in Sierra Leone wearing pearls and whining about mercenaries. How were those thousands of UN Peacekeepers working out? I’m sure the civilian population felt oh so protected. Oh, I know let’s try conducting peace negotiations with the RUF. I mean its not like it could turn out worse than last time.
Reporter well before HRW. Done more, seen more than you I very much suspect (in ways that count as decent). And yes… a ‘woman’ (if you’ll excuse her). We spell that differently here.
Honestly not interested in what you think of her given your insulting language above. You forget that she was a Reuters reporter (camera no gun, but Pulitzer prize) before HRW, and that this thread is about real-time reporters not mercenaries, however variably accurate or good their usually post-hoc accounts may be. By the way, it’s ‘self-righteousness’ and ‘cluelessness’. Just saying.
Last edited 2 years ago by Matt B
Chris Wheatley
2 years ago
Just think about BBC documentaries. If the reporter goes on a dinghy on a pond she wears a life jacket. All of the other people on boats, including children, don’t wear any safety gear. Forget the BBC.
Charlotte Bellis with distinctive blonde hair was in Kabul when the Taliban were threatening battle, stayed in Kabul throughout the evacuations and was pictured many times in front of guards with machine guns. No life vest either.
Matt B
2 years ago
It’s not just reporters that have been axed. Editors too, e.g. in this article: “Martin told me how the conservation on that subject ended”.
The Balkan wars were in the last years before internet domination.
News organisations have been filleted since.
Far fewer costly location reporters, many more commentators.
Thus: fewer unique sources, but infinitely more outlets.
Result: mostly opinionated drivel.
As an American, I’ve criticized many of Justin Webb’s pieces on Unherd about the USA because I felt, despite him having been a long-time reporter in the US, he never really connected with the USA. His articles never rang true.
This article rings true, at least to my ear. He writes as someone who really has been there and done it, and observed his peers doing their difficult and dangerous job.
I suspect war reporting is being gradually supplanted by ordinary people with cell phones recording events on the ground as they happen. That’s all you need nowadays: a cell phone and an internet connection. I vividly recall the massive explosion in Beirut last year (ok, not a war, but still…). Someone on their balcony with a cellphone recorded a video of that enormous explosion as it happened and there was a ton of footage of injured people being carried on the shoulders of passers-by to the nearest hospital. That impromptu reporting was immediate and gripping even without dramatic commentary provided by the likes of Kate Adie.
I certainly agree with the author that organizations are being purged these days of all eccentrics and others who don’t wholeheartedly buy into the dominant narrative. I suspect, however, that situation may not last forever. We live in a weird world, and the weird will out.
I’ve struggled to believe any war reporting to camera since the wonderful “Drop the dead donkey” series. Damien Day gave the game away.
Or The Day Today…
I particularly liked the ham sandwich dangling before the starving child sketch (if you remember it) – journalistic cynicism unveiled
Thanks Justin a great article with qualities sadly lacking in modern broadcast journalism. Namely, humility and humour. Nowadays with both Covid and Climate Change, we are subjected to histrionic hand-wringing and scare faced sanctimony. Science journalists in particular sound like PR agents for the public health bureaucracy , or the green lobby. Never a statistic questioned or an assertion queried. To corrupt a phrase they declaim and we despair.
I miss Rober Fisk. He was the only one who, when presented by some ridiculous lie by our government or army commander, would go out in the field and record the serial number of the NATO munition that had butchered that weeks civilian convoy. BBC would just parrot the lie, then and now.
He was a liar, a plagiarist and a propogandist for the worst regimes and organisations who often didn’t go out to collect the scoop himself but rip it off younger journalists.
But otherwise he was a great chap.
Same man, two completely different recollections and opinions. Who says small c conservative thought is homogenous?
At the beginning her was good and then after Iraq War 1990 appeared to lose it.
Funny you should mention Kate Adie and the First Gulf War, the reports I heard, from soldiers (mates) who found themselves in the ‘company’ of Kate, out in the desert, were not overly impressed. Haughty, contemptuous and having a habit of looking down her nose at people that she considered uninteresting or of no use to her.
Other soldiers had different oppinions. In her biography ” “The Kindness of Strangers” she is respectful of the military in Bosnia and The Gulf War 1990. I would interested in why different soldiers had different opinions of Adie.
K Adie’s biography highlights the decline in the BBC with Birt with his managers in London telling Adie and Bell how they pereceived the conflict in Bosnia rather than listening to those in the field. Sir Mark Tully appeared to have the same oppinion of Birt as Adie and Bell.
In general what we have in many organisations which decline is directors with minimal or no field experience telling those in the field how to do their job.Birt, d**k , etc peas in the pod.
I would suggest it is not purging eccentrics; it is purging worldly wise people with shrewd judgement and backbone and replacing them with effete clueless invertebrates.
Wasn’t there a hurricane report several years ago where the reporter was hanging on for dear life, and in the background, some bloke was just walking?
That was the Weather Channel. They could dramatize a puff of wind.
Interesting, but this is about wars and mostly Beeb bods, whereas the question applies also to many other types of journalism (notably investigative).
For wars, the perceived lack of sustained good reporting (with notable exceptions in camera and TV images vs hotel drop-in talking heads) has been accompanied by several trends beyond the Beeb’s failure to use its huge coffers to develop talent (perhaps because the model is out-dated?):
-Proliferation of slow-burn conflicts and notably civil wars (too many, complex and with western complicity);
-Persistence of wars over longer periods (news and sympathy fatigue);
-Rise of pervasive.narrative warfare (inc ISIS) to mislead/shock and make complicit news readers (revulsion);
-Culture wars at home over fact/truth impinging on report “acceptability” and “offence” (dull);
– Rising risk/aversity and embedding;
– News and outlet capture by govts, organizations and egos slanting even non-war issues (bias).
War in general is now more hybrid, dispersed and less kinetic, meaning field reporters are less relevant/central, and ill-equipped or unable to track/join the dots in time for short attention spans and deadlines.
The internet further opened news to opinion and fake news but also to reporters and other people beyond the western prototype: brave people (not necessarily formal reporters) with much to lose. The best of these (and agency reporters doing the day to day hard work) often go “unreported” or nameless (even when dead).
Even the best war (TV) reporters have struggled to meet insatiable employer or agency demands for “more, now” – and arguably this killed some of them. Miguel Gil Moreno…
If you want to find out about a fascinating war reporter I would look up Albertus Johannes Venter. Journalist, writer, mercenary, he knew how to handle a Kalashnikov as well as a camera. Venter was one of the few people to truly cover African conflicts in the second half of the 20th century.
Venter was a mercenary, period, who wrote books (good or bad is immaterial here). Times change and you cannot really be both a hired gun and reporter and yet credible in both camps.
For reporters, generally, carrying weapons is a really dumb idea and simply makes others targets. Know how to handle, for sure, but gun-toting mercenary hacks are no model. There are far more African reporters who never stooped to a gun for access or veracity. For a brave photographer without the “I’m packing Dude” bullshit: Corinne Dufka.
I do not care about your moral preaching. His work more than speaks for itself and is still considered more than credible in both camps.
As for Corinne Dufka, I remember her. Human Rights Watch b***h standing in the middle of a refugee camp in Sierra Leone wearing pearls and whining about mercenaries. How were those thousands of UN Peacekeepers working out? I’m sure the civilian population felt oh so protected. Oh, I know let’s try conducting peace negotiations with the RUF. I mean its not like it could turn out worse than last time.
Reporter well before HRW. Done more, seen more than you I very much suspect (in ways that count as decent). And yes… a ‘woman’ (if you’ll excuse her). We spell that differently here.
I really do not find a combination of self-righteous and clueless to be endearing. If you want me to respect her she needs to say less stupid things.
Honestly not interested in what you think of her given your insulting language above. You forget that she was a Reuters reporter (camera no gun, but Pulitzer prize) before HRW, and that this thread is about real-time reporters not mercenaries, however variably accurate or good their usually post-hoc accounts may be. By the way, it’s ‘self-righteousness’ and ‘cluelessness’. Just saying.
Just think about BBC documentaries. If the reporter goes on a dinghy on a pond she wears a life jacket. All of the other people on boats, including children, don’t wear any safety gear. Forget the BBC.
Charlotte Bellis with distinctive blonde hair was in Kabul when the Taliban were threatening battle, stayed in Kabul throughout the evacuations and was pictured many times in front of guards with machine guns. No life vest either.
It’s not just reporters that have been axed. Editors too, e.g. in this article: “Martin told me how the conservation on that subject ended”.