They may not have intended to go into battle, but ABC anchorman Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt must have known the dangers of reporting from an unstable region when a roadside bomb detonated and hit their convoy on Sunday and made them part of the war.
Ed Board is glad the two are back in the United States and hopes they will make a speedy recovery.
Ed Board thinks it is important to recognize journalists who have risked their lives to bring the reality of war into our homes.
Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll has not fared as well as others. Carroll was kidnapped on Jan. 7, and has since been the subject of may tapes on Al Jazeera. She has been seen weeping and begging for the release of Iraqi female prisoners. Her kidnappers are threatening to execute her if their demands are not met.
Ed Board understands this is a concession the United States simply cannot make. As much as Ed Board would like to see Jill Carroll returned safely to the United States,. negotiation with terrorists is never a viable option, no matter how bleak the circumstances.
Although news reporting should always be performed from an objective and somewhat distant point of view, the lines become more blurred in war zones.
Ed Board cannot imagine how difficult it must be to be embedded in such tumultuous circumstances. Reporters are experiencing the war not only with the soldiers, but they themselves will have stories to share when they come home, whether they become the story or not.
Some journalists have even become casualties. In August of last year, freelance reporter Steven Vincent was found shot to death on the side of the road in Iraq. He, too, was working for the Christian Science Monitor, as well as the The New York Times.
Ed Board wonders if it is really worth the loss of human life, so that we can get in depth coverage of war.
In the end, it is a personal decision for each journalist. Ed Board admires the bravery and the unrelenting committment of those journalists who go voluntarily into the middle of a war to keep the world informed.
We hope they all make it home unscathed but understand the losses thus far sustained make their futures uncertain.
