July 10, 2004, These days, the truth is likely to get you killed as set you free
A sad visit to Pravda this week, as we learn of the murder of Forbes Russian edition editor, Paul Khlebnikov, near his Moscow office.
Khlebnikov's activities as a journalist in Moscow pissed off the rich and powerful set, such as his exposes that included a book called "Kremlin"s Godfather Boris or the story of looting Russia", on oligarch Boris Berezovsky. In 2003 Mr. Khlebnikov published "Conversation with Barbarian" on his communication with Chechen rebel commander Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev. The Moscow edition of Forbes (thanks largely to the snooping efforts of Khlebnikov) placed 39 billionaires in Moscow- most of any city in the world- among the Forbes 400 richest people in the world-- and none of them seemed mighty too pleased with the disclosure.
Journalism has been a dangerous job for a long time-- we are all familiar with the deaths of Daniel Pearl murdered in Pakistan, or of Mike Kelly killed in Iraq. But American journalist tends to have a comparatively cushy lot; journalists in the rest of the world are getting knocked off in larger numbers. Indeed, recently, the United States (at least since 9-11) has been treating journalists from our closest allies as lepers, criminals, or as if they were terrorists, or worse, as if they wer innocent Iraqis. (with thanks to digby for the heads up on the story).
So, some things are understandable. Its understandable why American journalists were delighted to serve as propaganda tools by being "embedded" with American units in the very brief war part of the Iraq war... it was probably safer than being in Baghdad's Palestine or Al Rajib Hotel at that time... Of course, once we had conquered Baghdad, and hotels near the Green Zone were relatively safe (compared to the rest of Iraq, anyway), that is, by and large, where our journalists hung out hoping that good stories would make their way to the hotel bar, or from Green Zone press briefings. Their foreign counterparts were often out getting the stories... and getting killed.
Lookit: from Albania to Zimbabwe, its a dangerous world. But journalists the world over go into that biz intending to take risks to get the story-- risks of reputation, frequently, risks of their lives. There was a time when America could be proud of its journalists, who by and large, did what it took to bring home the story.
That time is not the present. Journalism has now become a blow-dried arm of showbiz (small wonder when "media conglomerates" like Murdoch's NewsCorp, Disney, Viacom and Time Warner control most broadcast news, with defense contractor GE controlling the rest) journalists now treat political figures as if they were Hollywood celebrities--nothing too controversial or His Highness may never call on you again! (And once in a while, some uppity foreign bitch gets out of line... well, we just won't stand for that sorta thing here, where the Buffoon in Chief gets treated with the appropriate respect demanded by a Gilbert & Sullivan character!) Sure-- we still have groundbreaking journalism from the likes of Seymour Hersh... but he's at or near social security eligibility.
Hell, as Jayson Blair showed us at The New York Times, sometimes even taking trips within the United States to get a story was too much work-- better to quite literally phone it in!
No, the action in journalism is happening outside our borders (indeed, this is why I often seek out foreign sources-- almost unbelievably as our access to foreign sources accelerates exponentially via internet, our knowledge of matters foreign declines, and I am often finding myself having to go to foreign sources to see what's happening here). Khlebnikov-- killed at only 41 (my age)-- was one of the heroes out there in the real war between good and evil-- the one between the truth and lies and light and darkness that we seem to be on the losing side of here at home.
God rest his soul and condolences to his family.
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