NYT reporter escapes Taliban

[somewriter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/world/asia/21taliban.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

 

[buckweaver]

This was an incredible story. The guy's won two Pulitzers for his reporting. Glad he's finally safe.

Interesting how AP and others agreed to not cover his kidnapping, out of concern for his safety.

 

[Clerk Typist]

Keeping kidnappings secret is pretty standard procedure.

And here, according to the other guy who escaped, is how it was done:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/world/asia/22tahir.html?hp

 

[PeteyPirate]

This story reminds me of the time I had to cover a high school football game in Spartanburg, S.C., and they turned off the lights and locked the gates like 10 minutes after the final whistle. Not only did I have to work in utter darkness, but I had to climb a chain-link fence while carrying my laptop bag.

 

[Sneed]

This is wild. Thanks for sharing.

 

[DanOregon]

I would have less of a problem with it if the NYT and other news orgs would be consistent. Do they refrain from coverage at all times when someone's life may be in danger or only when it is one of their reporters?

 

[EE94]

This story reminds me of the time I had to cover a high school football game in Spartanburg, S.C., and they turned off the lights and locked the gates like 10 minutes after the final whistle. Not only did I have to work in utter darkness, but I had to climb a chain-link fence while carrying my laptop bag.

please tell me you're being facetious

 

[finishthehat]

This will be a major motion picture in what, two years?

That was an oddity yesterday -- two above-the-fold stories in the Times without bylines.

 

[write then drink]

This story reminds me of the time I had to cover a high school football game in Spartanburg, S.C., and they turned off the lights and locked the gates like 10 minutes after the final whistle. Not only did I have to work in utter darkness, but I had to climb a chain-link fence while carrying my laptop bag.

it's just like that

 

[RickStain]

This story reminds me of the time I had to cover a high school football game in Spartanburg, S.C., and they turned off the lights and locked the gates like 10 minutes after the final whistle. Not only did I have to work in utter darkness, but I had to climb a chain-link fence while carrying my laptop bag.

it's just like that

http://***kstraisameme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/lost-game-of-jenga2.jpg

 

[PeteyPirate]

But I ripped my khakis.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

FirstDown,

That was pretty funny.

CBC -- where I work -- went through the same thing earlier this year when our Afghanistan correspondent was kidnapped. Google "Melissa Fung" and you'll learn about her adventure, although I'm not sure that's the right word. She was kidnapped, and eventually released. No Canadian media outlet reported about her disappearance, although it was well-known.

 

[JayFarrar]

It used to be that if a reporter's byline went missing from the paper, people would notice and call about it.
Now people just assume the reporter got laid off and go about their business.

I nominate Clooney to be the kidnapped reporter for the upcoming movie.

 

[WaylonJennings]

Wait ... the NYT and Taliban aren't business partners?

 

[jimluttrell1963]

I would have less of a problem with it if the NYT and other news orgs would be consistent. Do they refrain from coverage at all times when someone's life may be in danger or only when it is one of their reporters?

can you cite an example of a news organization that refused to refrain from coverage when it was asked to in order to protect someone's safety?

 

[JayFarrar]

One of the nazel gazers at Poynter, one of their ethics people, ripped the Times for its decision not to report on its missing reporter.

Your defense of the total news blackout surrounding the kidnapping of David Rohde has made the job of every free journalist in the world much harder. In doing so, you have put your loyalties to a few in front of the larger journalistic principle of truth telling.
You have indicated that when a life is in danger, we should avoid reporting the truth until that life is secure. In taking this position, you've created a standard that we journalists can't possibly uphold.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=67&aid=165629

"We journalists" really? Hey Kelly McBride, you aren't a ****ing journalist. You are a douchebag ethicist at Poynter, who would rather have a Times reporter beheaded so a story could be written.
I guess that would make it two stories:
* Times reporter kidnapped
* Times reporter killed by captors
What the Times did was in this particular and individal case, they made a measured, reasoned response based on the specifics that you may or may not be aware of. They didn't set a standard for all news gathering organizations to follow.
**** off.

 

[ringer]

I've been looking for Letters to the Editor about Rohde's escape in the NYT and they seem to be conspicuously absent.

Does the blackout continue now that he's safe?

Or did I just miss it in the hard copy of the paper?

 

[Tarheel316]

Jay, I concur 100 percent. McBride is an idiot.

 

[YankeeFan]

Did the Times pay a ransom?

And is the Times asking other news orgs for discretion in reporting when their employees are taken hostage, but not providing discretion when hostages are taken who are just civilians and not reporters?

http://media.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzVlYzdjYzFkN2FlODhiZDE4MjdlNWE2YjMyMzgwY2Q=

 

[clutchcargo]

Wait ... the NYT and Taliban aren't business partners?

Original story must have had a typo--the NYT guy didn't escape from the Taliban, he escaped TO the Taliban.