Surprise. And a pleasant one. For once.
Joy. Widespread. Worldwide.
But especially at the homes of relatives of Jill Carroll and at One Norway Street, The Christian Science Monitor’s offices.
The release of the Monitor’s correspondent Jill Carroll is a rarity these days: a hostage story that truly has a happy ending that everyone can enjoy. The details of precisely how and why she was released will likely be fleshed out later: the press will want to know more.
The story has has been front page news and top-of-the-newscast news all over the world. Countless weblogs have commented on it (for a cross section of links see below). But there seem to be two key lessons drawn from this:
- Journalism has always been a perilous business. In some countries such as Mexico, murders of journalists seem to come in periodic spurts (often to those who are writing about drug cartels). Iraq is a plum assignment but one of the most deadly a journalist can draw (for fully paid staffers) or choose to cover (for special correspondents or “stringers” who are paid by the piece).
- There are seeming limits, even for terrorists. Unless some new revelation emerges about a behind-the-scenes ransom or some other kind of deal, it appears as if this hostage seizure was a big, fat miscalculation on the part of the terrorists. Why? Because Carroll was apparently a well-connected and beloved reporter who had learned the language and culture. She wasn’t just plopping in to write a few stories. She had a built in network of people in many different political camps and had impressed them with her fairness.
For The Christian Science Monitor (one of the finest U.S. newspapers, an unsung and unappreciated hero of American journalism) Carroll’s release was literally an answer to personal and corporate prayers. In an editorial the paper wrote, in part:
Ah. The sweet taste of freedom. Journalist Jill Carroll, released Thursday after nearly three months in captivity in Iraq, is savoring it. So are her family, and her colleagues here at the Monitor. But we also know this: freedom doesn’t come without commitment.
As a newspaper, the Monitor is committed to freedom of the press. Information, independently reported, is key to understanding. That principle is exactly what motivated Jill when, on assignment for this newspaper Jan. 7, the freelance journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad, and her translator, Allan Enwiya, killed.
Jill devoted herself fully to communicating the complex story of Iraq. She learned Arabic. She worked appropriately in Iraq, dressing as a Muslim woman would.
She is also one of many journalists the world over who prove their commitment to a free media by putting their lives on the line to report from dangerous places.
With 60 journalists killed in Iraq so far, that country has been the deadliest for the media in the past decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. This is not the first time a reporter working for the Monitor has been taken hostage.
Indeed, these are the days when it’s easy for many Americans to sit in offices, in their dens watching TV, or at computers writing blanket statement condemning the horrible, lilly-livered mainstream media. In fact, reporters often put themselves in highly perilous positions while trying to gather facts (versus writing op-ed pieces or doing sites like this blog, which is a cyberspace version of an op-ed page) on the scene.
They don’t travel with full-time bodyguards. They don’t usually have limos. They don’t ride in corporate jets. They don’t wear bullet proof vests. And journalists in Iraq don’t wear metal turtleneck sweaters to prevent or complicate beheadings.
And if, as in the case of Carroll, they have an appointment with a source, they show up — and are easy pickings if it’s a set up.
They travel with their notebooks, camcorders, tape records. But mostly they travel with a passion to find out what’s going on and get the story. And when they finally get and write the story, their stories could be “spiked” or cut due to a lack of space — but they go out and try to do the best story they can.
Depending on where they work, they keep in touch with their officers by cell phone, fax or email. But once they go out to report, they’re out there alone. Alone — and vulnerable. The Washington Post:
Jill Carroll wondered from day to day whether she would grow old or die a hostage.
“It was like falling off a cliff for three months, waiting to hit the ground,” the 28-year-old American reporter said Thursday after being released by her kidnappers.
Mostly, they travel with courage.
THERE HAS BEEN EXTENSIVE COMMENT ON CARROLL’S RELEASE. HERE’S A CROSS SECTION OF WEBLOG LINKS REPRESENTING DIFFERING VIEWPOINTS:
—The Jawa Report has a comprehensive post on it with tons of links to info, videos of Carroll in capitity, and blog links.
—Firedoglake:”And John Podhoretz is an insensitive, bloviating ass. The woman has been free for less than a day, and the wingnut attack brigade has already geared up to paint her as being mental.”
—Damien’s Semi-Daily Blog:
Jill Carroll has been released by her Muslim captors and I think the whole thing smells a little fishy…call me a party-pooper.
Nobody knows who captured her and nobody knows why she was released. My paranoid opinion is that something doesn’t ring true about the whole thing. In the first tape where she looks desperate and distraught it seems like she is acting, and her release costume, a heavy-duty, Muslim ,Vera Wang over-the-head, flowery number, seems very severe — almost as though she is making a statement. Keep in mind that she went to Iraq to write about how misunderstood the insurgents were. She certainly had an agenda to fake the whole thing, didn’t she?
Treated humanely by her captors. What is this world coming to? I’m sure Rove and his team of spinning elves will somehow mutate this story into a tale of daring rescue wherein Dubya himself dives out of a helicopter with nothing but a bowie knife clenched between his teeth to single-handedly rescue Carroll by… oh… sometime this afternoon. In the meantime, welcome home, Jill. A spot of sanity in this war is something we all need at this point.
Let’s hope this is what worked. While it’s thrilling she’s safe, the thought of more money flowing to these maniacs enabling them to kill more innocents would be disturbing. The CSM at this point says they don’t know why she was released, and while there is some rumor of a ransom, the CSM says it was not involved if there was one. As there are more details on this I’ll bring it to you. I’m afraid (and I hope I’m wrong) that Carroll is another “hostage” who has more sympathy for the savages than for the good Iraqis trying to defeat scum that steals people off the street. Let’s hope she’s a bit more condemning about her not-captured kidnappers, and that no money changed hands.
—A Newer World:”One of the most ignorant, distasteful, and bizarre aspects of the American conservative bashing of Jill Carroll is the way in which her attackers have reacted to her wearing of the veil during television interviews after her release. It’s as if these people expected her to throw on some fatigues and wrap herself in a mission accomplished banner.”
—Articulomortus:
The world received very good news today… journalist Jill Carroll was freed! That is good news, right? Not to the Right it ain’t. Ms. Carroll says she was treated well by her captors and that puts the Cons in a pickle… Arab “Islamo-Fascists Terrorists” treated her well. Oh…She must be lying, or we look like a——s, so she must be lying! Or maybe she was in on it the whole time?
Am I defending the people who kidnapped her? Hell No! They killed her interpreter and held her since January 7th! Butttt, they didn’t waterboard her, use dogs on her, make her pile up in a human pyramid, or make her masturbate for the camera. That presents a problem for the Cons…
Jill Carroll’s release is a reason for joy and relief among her family and the public. Any hostage freed from the Jihadists or any other terrorists is excellent news. The next stage, now, is to understand why she was kidnapped, and what were the reasons for her release, unharmed. The study of her kidnapping and release may help in analyzing the other hostage taking situations, including the fate of those still abducted….Each word used by the ex-hostage before and after the abduction, are now of great importance to better understand the matter. Her future writings are going to tell the world more about the reasons behind the kidnapping.
—Time writes about how the Sunnis will use Carroll’s release and then puts it into perspective:
After news of her release filled the airwaves, the editor of the Christian Science Monitor, Richard Bergenheim, called for the release of all hostages in Iraq. “We hope this tide of opposition to criminal behavior will lead to the release of all other hostages as well,” he said. “The Christian Science Monitor will not let these people be forgotten. The people of Iraq, and those risking their lives to help them, have a right to live in safety.”
Indeed, on the same day that Carroll was enjoying her newly won freedom, CNN reported that 40 more Iraqis were kidnapped. And judging by recent grim events, their prospects for a happy ending like Carroll’s aren’t very good.
—A Blog For All offers a lot of links to sites raising questions about the release. One is to a news report with some journalists in Iraq talking about speculation of a ransom having been paid. The blog’s comment:
I would have to say that there would be damn good reason not to let people know that ransom was paid. It would mean that it would be open season on journalists in Iraq – knowing that the foreign media would pay for the release of their journalists, though this possibility has to be tempered by the fact that news of ransom paid to any of the kidnappers would quickly spread to other insurgent groups and thugs who want a piece of the action.
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.