What happens when an American is seized and held hostage in Iraq?
By now it’s predictable: it becomes a big story — but with each hostage seized it becomes a smaller story. It gets a bit of ink and a line on TV/cable news. And then you don’t hear about it. The reason: the media and public perceptions are becoming desensitized.
But little by little you notice how weblogs are taking on the function that many originally thought they would do: they’re doing ORIGINAL reporting to compete with the mainstream media or fill in gaps in its coverage.
CLICK HERE to read a remarkable interview with Carrie Hallums Cooper, daughter of hostage Roy Hallums.
Make sure you click on the links to read the earlier interviews as well. No matter what your position is on the war in Iraq, it’s vital reading and Hallums is in a situation that no American should be in. He shouldn’t be forgotten…and due to a blog he isn’t.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.