David Halberstam
David Halberstam
David Halberstamwas an American journalist and historian, known for his work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and later, sports journalism. He won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1964. In 2007, while doing research for a book, Halberstam was killed in a car crash...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth10 April 1934
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
people too-much events
These days there's all too much coverage of pesudo-events about extraordinarily inauthentic people doing inauthentic things.
men dilemma grandeur
The truth posed a great dilemma for a man who always had to be right, and yet, for all his grandeur, was often wrong.
jobs lessons conventional
One of the things I learned, the easiest of lessons, was that the better you do your job, often going against conventional mores, the less popular you are likely to be.
modesty sometimes virtue
Sometimes the best virtue learned on the battlefield is modesty.
sports football pain
Rowing, particularly sculling, inflicts on the individual in every race a level of pain associated with few other sports. There was certainly pain in football during a head-on collision, pain in other sports on the occasion of a serious injury. That was more the threat of pain; in rowing there was the absolute guarantee of it every time.
people resilience great-faith
I have a great faith in the strength and the resilience in the American people.
soldier mark uncommon
This was the mark of an uncommon soldier, someone whose courage away from the battlefield was the same as that on it.
love life relationship
Memory is often less about the truth than about what we want it to be.
stories world sin
If youre a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring.
among cherished locked respectful understood wife
They understood who they were individually and they understood who they were as a couple. They were marvelously locked in together. For my wife and myself, among the most cherished times were the four-person dinners, because you got these extraordinary intellectuals who were enormously respectful of each other.
against award bring broadcast commitment difficult endurance example heavy high honor infantry journalism media members personally print profession profile public recognizes reminder reporters reporting special stories though tremendous
This award is very special because it recognizes what I think of as members of the infantry -- reporters who do the heavy lifting, even though they don't personally have the high public profile that some journalists in print and broadcast media attain. Their commitment to reporting difficult stories over the long haul, often against the conventional grain, is a tremendous public service, and the example of endurance and honor that they bring to the profession is a reminder of what journalism is about at its best.
based books curious
I think you always go out and do books based on what you're curious about.
best changes ended forces good reflection society tried
I think what we tried to do is get a reflection of all the forces that are at play, of the best writing. In the end, we ended up with something that was a pretty good reflection of the changes in society as well.
appalled battle great mass mistake moved toward urban view watching weapons welcomed worst
I think they were watching the movie 'Patton' when they should have been watching 'The Battle of Algiers' about urban insurgency. I'm a Vietnam-era journalist. I think most journalists were appalled as we moved toward war in Iraq. The worst mistake this administration made was not about weapons of mass destruction. It was the administration's view that we'd be welcomed as the great liberator.