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(More customer reviews)This is a remarkable memoir for a number of reasons. It describes a career already made redundant by technology, cost and public indifference. It includes graphic eye-witness accounts of many of the most headline-grabbing international episodes of the past thirty years. It introduces readers to a wide range of current and past players on the world stage from almost every part of the globe. And it is self published - because no commercial or academic publisher in the US or UK would touch it.
Foreign correspondents like Ray Moseley belong to an endangered species today and the calculation of the publishing industry must be that no one is sufficiently interested in their unique stories to buy a book about them. More's the pity. Moseley, a reporter on the Arkansas Gazette, Detroit Free Press, UPI and the Chicago Tribune from 1952-2001 - itself something of a record for longevity in a notoriously short-term business - has written a vivid account of a life on the road that recalls, as the book's publicity puts it, "a golden age in American journalism when hundreds of correspondents still roamed the world."
There is not space in a review like this to detail all the places, incidents and events included by Moseley. Suffice to say that among other episodes he covered the first Indo-Pakistan war, revolution in Iran, the Six-Day War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the collapse of communism in the Soviet bloc, conflict in Northern Ireland, civil war in Rhodesia, strife in South Africa and much else besides.
Along the way he was based in Cairo, Moscow, Belgrade, Rome, Nairobi, Berlin and London (several times) where he now lives. He reckons to have worked in 78 countries. He was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for reporting from Africa and in 2002 was honoured by Queen Elizabeth 11 for services to journalism - the first American in a generation to receive this accolade.
A reader is left amazed at the versatility, stamina, resourcefulness and dogged leg work that kept Moseley chasing the news for so many years in so many awful places. He rarely questions the value of what he was doing and looks back at it all with a suitably skeptical, laconic glance.
A persistent advocate of truth, justice and transparency, he deplores the "ignorance" of the American people about the world at large which, he argues, politicians have exploited mercilessly since the Vietnam era. Much of the blame, he writes, lies with supine editors and publishers reluctant to play the adverserial role that should define the Fourth Estate. Yet he is always clear about the limited role of the correspondent in the field, often deploring colleagues who overstepped the bounds or became too involved.
As this remark suggests, Moseley is not shy about naming names and settling a few scores along the way. Like virtually all foreign correspondents he has some horror stories about head office. Reporters who shirk danger, deliberately twist or exaggerate events or get too close to government arouse his ire. Many of his targets are dead, but not all.
What does a book like this tell us about journalism now and in the second half of the 20th century? Communications have improved out of all recognition. But the flip side of this advance is that the commitment to sustained on-the-scene reporting has withered along with perspective, weekly newsmagazines and costly foreign bureaux. As technology has evolved, the importance of the mainstream writing press throughout the developed world has declined precipitously, challenged now even by "citizen journalists" armed with cell phones.
Today a once-great newspaper like the Chicago Tribune has closed its foreign bureaux, instead relying on bought-in copy from wire services and sister papersto give its foreign coverage any distinction. Little or no investment is being made in people or training. In contrast, it took Moseley 25 years' hard slog from his start on the Galveston Daily News to make it to the Tribune's news desk. Language skills, once considered crucial, now seem to be optional.
Within organisations the institutional memory of events and situations provided by more experienced journalists has almost entirely disappeared. "A huge talent pool has been swept out of the door" Moseley observes sadly. "I can only give thanks that my career ended when it did. Had I come into journalism just a few years ago, and finished work a half century from now, I would never have had experiences remotely similar to those recounted in this book."
That, in itself, makes it worthwhile to read this memoir simply to recall a lost world where a man or woman with determination, courage and a notebook was often the main link between a great city like Chicago and the rest of the world. Moseley has done a service to journalism by recalling this very recent era before it is forgotten for good.
By Robin Knight
(Robin Knight was a foreign correspondent for US News & World Report for 28 years from 1968-96 and reviewed books for Time magazine 1998-2003)
Click Here to see more reviews about: In Foreign Fields: A Veteran Correspondent's Brushes with Wars, Revolution, Secret Police and Flea-Pit Hotels
This is a personal report from the frontline of foreign correspondence, a veteran reporter's account of his experiences in covering wars and revolution, dealing with secret police and explaining to American readers the intricacies of life in foreign countries with cultures often far different from their own.
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