Breaking News by Martin Fletcher

This book was at the top of my reading list, and it really surpassed my expectations.
Simple but engaging, the book depicts the story of Martin Fletcher, the NBC News Bureau Chief in Tel Aviv. Written by himself, Fletcher explains that the main reason he wanted to become a foreign correspondent is because it seemed to mean Free Travel.
But after he launched his career with Visnews, the world’s largest news film agency, he quickly discovered that things wouldn’t be as simple as he thought.
Shortly after arriving in Israel as a young reporter he was thrust into the 1973 war between Israel and Egypt and Syria. Things only got complicated from here. Fletcher explains in vivid detail of times in which he witnessed starvations, met parents of young children just killed in bomb attacks –some of the children were friends of his own children-, and even saw his own friends blown apart by land mines.
Throughout the book Fletcher talks about the decisions war correspondents need to make in order to get the story. At times he had to interview, and even kind of befriend, the men that were blowing up his own friends in bomb attacks. The men that could one day blow up his own kids or wife.
But the book gives no answers to the possible questions that might arise as reading it. Fletcher stresses that being a successful war correspondent is more about luck than about anything else. He explains that there is no booklet that helps the reporter make a decision in a difficult situation –such as, should the reporter film the murder of two people, if they know ahead of time that it’s going to happen? –. And he also can’t answer the question of why he would engage in such a dangerous job in the first place, and for so many years.
The book is not about answering questions, but rather it is about shining a light in the world of being a war correspondent.
In his closing chapter Fletcher writes a few of the possible reasons why somebody would engage in such a job: “In a world obsessed with celebrities, wealth, and success, I have focused on those left behind, on those who paid the price. I have tried to answer the question: Why should we care?”