There Is No Cat

Fingers crossed for Paul

Ben Hammersley mentions a remarkable report on BBC television by John Simpson, their World Affairs Editor and the Liberator of Kabul. Simpson was travelling with Kurdish soldiers and American Special Forces in northern Iraq when an American plane dropped a bomb on his convoy. Simpson says he was about 10-12 feet away from the bomb, so it’s pretty astonishing that he’s still alive. You can hear in the report that he’s wounded, although not so badly that he can’t report. He shooes away an American medic who approaches him to treat his wounds while he’s on air. Ben didn’t point to it, but you can read and even listen to the actual report on the BBC’s web site.

Meanwhile, NBC is now reporting the death of one of their journalists, David Bloom, noted for his breathless reports from moving armored personnel carriers screaming across the desert. He died of a pulmonary embolism, rather than from anything combat-related, which I suppose means he could have just as easily died suddenly at home from the same thing, which is really spooky given that he’s my age.

Between these two reports and the recent death of Michael Kelly in Iraq, the whole journalism situation in Iraq is a little troubling. One of Laura’s old friends (in fact, her first boyfriend from when she was in high school, and still a family friend) is in Iraq as part of Ted Koppel’s crew, travelling with the same group as David Bloom, the 3rd Infantry Division. Laura’s been worried about him, but I figured there’s no way ABC is going to let Koppel get in harm’s way. But when someone of the magnitude of Simpson gets bombed, who is at least as important to the BBC as Koppel is to ABC, I start to wonder a bit.... Fingers crossed for Paul.

Posted at 9:36 AM