RE: [Leica] b.d. we hardly knew ye....

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Yes, Fred, you are absolutely right:

I am the first to note that I shared a Pulitzer for General Local Reporting
in 1984 - nothing related to photography - and I have NEVER, EVER, here or
anywhere else stated otherwise, and never would. The paper, Newsday, credits
me and Kathy Kerr as the two principals. We were the "team leaders," which
meant it was our story until, in a final orgy of Pulitzer-mania, Newsday
threw about a half-million reporters onto a big Sunday piece. I wrote the
ethics stuff, Kathy wrote the ongoing news stuff.

I would also NEVER claim, Brian's kind, kind words aside, that the GW Hachet
had great coverage of the war. It did have VERY good coverage of a number of
the major anti-war demonstrations, as many of them ended by sweeping the GW
campus. And I would definitely claim that it had the best coverage of that
kind of any of the Washington-area student papers.

I don't necessarily agree with all the picks on your "best of" list, but
that's why Howard Johnson's used to have 28 flavors. While Harrison
Salisbury's coverage from North Vietnam had enormous impact, I believe he
was, to an important degree, used as a propaganda tool by the North. But all
those you named wrote some brilliant stuff. Sheehan's book, A Bright Shining
Lie, MUST be read by anyone who wants to begin to understand the war. And
the Library of America series is, as you noted, truly terrific. Sitting down
with it now, these 25 years after the end of the war, brings it back as few
other things can. There is another incredible book, primarily about
Halberstam, Sheehan and Browne, and the early reporting of the war and its
impact on the war...It's written by a former Wash Post reporter, whose name
escapes me at the moment, but its a fascinating account.

As to Ward Just, he did great Vietnam work, but I believe that it is as a
novelist - since his return - that he really shines.

B. D.

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Fred
Zimmerman
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 3:42 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: RE: [Leica] b.d. we hardly knew ye....


  As I am sure B.D. would be the first to note, if he were still here, that
Pulitzer Prize in 1984 went to a group of reporters (not photographers) at
Newsday, of whom he was one. And I doubt that he would claim his college
paper was the best source of Vietnam war news available in Washington in
the late 60s. I lived in Washington at the time, working as a journalist,
and I never heard anyone speak that way of George Washington University's
paper--fine publication though it may have been. My colleagues and I were
reading, with great admiration, the work of professional journalists such
as Neil Sheehan, Harrison Salisbury, Malcolm Browne, Ward Just, Charles
Mohr, Lee Lescaze, Seymour Hersh, David Halberstam and others. (Some of
them won, or shared, Pulitzers, by the way.) From month to month, it was a
toss-up as to whether the Washington Post or the New York Times had the
better coverage, although I'd vote for the Times overall. The Library of
America series has a fine two-volume collection of the best journalism from
the Vietnam years. It's called Reporting Vietnam. Part One: American
Journalism 1959-1969, and Part Two: American Journalism 1969-1975.
  One note in this thread, by the way, incorrectly reported that Melvin
Mencher won a Pulitzer. It also incorrectly implied that he is not a good
journalism professor. He is maybe the best ever, as editors who have been
eagerly hiring his best students for years would surely tell you.

Fred
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