Pulitzer prize winning journalist Peter Arnett
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Pulitzer prize winning journalist Peter Arnett has covered the erupting hot spots of the world for more than three decades. As his biographical Live From the Battlefield attests, through his frequent adversarial relationship with the powers that be and his unparalleled tenacity to get the story, Arnett has changed the face of modern journalism. Most influential in his role as war correspondent, Arnett's career has ushered in the era of independent television news coverage, as well as era of the supreme risk taker willing to fall on the sword in defence of the First Amendment. Breaking the traditional vow of silence and collusion with those who govern, he was also among the first journalists to realize that the media was an instrument of power for conveying accuracy, and for correcting the record (Arnett, 1994, p. 51). Before Arnett, the journalist was something akin to a skilled, well-disciplined lap dog waiting for its master to dispense with table scraps of information (journalists were considered lucky to have a place in the house at all). Traditionally, war correspondents had a long history of championing the efforts of the empowered right up to World War II and the Korean War. It was the rule rather than the exception that analysis was confined to a reading of the political scene by a journalist reviewing whose writings could make no impact. Arnett changed that. Possessing all of the traits necessary for any would-be journalist to study, he developed excellent co
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in apparent unconcern, though they knew that they would soon be flown into combat." (82)
Often, such copy went unedited from source to publication. In 1966, Arnett was awarded a Pulitzer for his ability to capture the ephemeral moment.
Through a "save your ass but get the story" philosophy, Arnett honed a difficult to achieve sense of emotional detachment (87). Criticism that he should have prevented the young monk who immolated himself in front of Arnett and his fellow reporters. He would have liked to have done something as a human being, but as a reporter, he couldn't - a chain of events would have ensued that could propel him into Vietnamese politics. His role as a reporter would have been compromised along with his integrity. (119). It is not fair to kill the messenger for the unwanted message.
In banging heads with American military censors, Arnett uncovered the failure of the American Strategic Hamlet Program - a sociomilitary experiment that, by attempting to close rural village hamlets to the communist Vietcong insurgents, intended safe communities that were in reality internment camps (92-93). At first impressed by propaganda distributed about the camps, Arnett later vowed to hold to his simple rule - repor
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Approximate Word count = 2285
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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