Rebecca Himmelstein
On April 2nd I attended the Foster-Foreman Conference featuring the speaker David Finkel. Finkel is a writer and reporter for the Washington Post and wrote the book “The Good Soldiers”. In Finkel’s speech, he spoke about his time as an embedded journalist with a platoon in Baghdad in 2007-2008. This was during the American troop surge and was stationed in a very dangerous part of Baghdad. There were two stories that Finkel told that really stuck with me.
The first story Finkel presented to the audience was about a soldier named Josh Reeves. Reeves’ wife had just had a baby and he was on his way back to their base to call his wife when a roadside bomb hit his tank and he was killed. When trying to save his life, a nurse accidentally kicked the man’s toe across the ground and hit Finkel in the boot. Finkel said the most difficult line he ever had to write in his book was “That’s a toe”. Finkel struggled back and forth with himself on whether or not he should include such gruesome details about Reeves’ last moments in his book, but decided that he would. Reeves’ family emailed Finkel after the book was released to thank him for including the details in his book. They told Finkel that because of this they were able to spend their son’s last moment with him and for that they would be forever grateful.
The second story Finkel told was about what happens in the aftermath when a soldier comes home. A soldier, Adam Shefter, was not allowed to get on a helicopter with the rest of the soldiers who would be going home, but instead he had to take a Red Cross helicopter. The Red Cross helicopters were for soldiers who were badly injured or had died. In this moment Adam realized his life would never be the same. One night when lying in bed, he promised he would stay up with his baby while his wife would sleep. Adam accidentally fell asleep and dropped his baby and woke up to the sound of his wife screaming. After this happened, Adam got into his car and drove around with a shotgun pointed at his head, contemplating suicide. This story that Finkel told shows the dark side of war and the things that no one really thinks about. Even though these soldiers get to come home, there is still so much pain that they have to deal with.
The main topic of David Finkel’s speech was that as a journalist, you will have to face many issues about whether or not you should write about something. Finkel expressed that you should be a reporter first and a writer second. Finkel said that in his book, every sentence was a reported sentence before it was a written sentence. One of the most important ethical issues a journalist will face in their career is whether or not something is appropriate to publish. Conflict reporting is never easy, and it seems like you will always be faced with some criticism if this is the career path you choose. In an article by Kevin Smith, a chairman of the Ethics Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists, Smith says, “hardly a day passes that journalism doesn’t reveal the tragedies of life to its audience. In fact, it’s the primary news du jour no matter where you live. Fires, deaths, crimes and natural disasters will trump charitable donations, pet features or the garden-variety government meeting every time.” (Smith 2012). Unfortunately, tragedy sells newspapers and it is the job of a journalist to report the news, no matter how tragic it is. It’s important to remember that as a journalist you have an obligation to society to do your job and be a reporter, but you have to be respectful of the victims and their families.
The SPJ Code of Ethics gives guidance as to when it is appropriate to report tragedy or not, if you are struggling with your decision. The code says, “Recognize that gathering and re- porting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance.”(Schotz 2007). David Finkel might not have had that much difficulty in making his decisions due to the amount of experience he has had. But as a college student who will soon be entering the journalism field, it won’t be that easy to make decisions in what I report. I want to stick to my ethical morals but I also want to be a good journalist.
Overall, I really learned a lot from David Finkel’s discussion. He said that he was able to make these decisions about what to include in his books from what he learned in college. Finkel says that the world needs witnesses and that being a journalist means it is your duty to convey the news. From this discussion I learned that I’m going to face ethical dilemmas in my career but I have to stick to what I believe in and remember what my job is and I should be successful. It’s important to still talk about these kinds of things because they will never go away. Journalists have faced ethical issues since the beginning of time and there will never be a time that we don’t have to.
Smith, K. (2012). Minimizing harm takes careful consideration. Quill, 100(1), 34.
Schotz, A. (2007). Covering tragedy with compassion. Quill, 95(5), 71.