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
With the marketing pressures driving the book world today, it's much easier to get the author of a memoir on a television show than a serious novelist.
This was the mark of an uncommon soldier, someone whose courage away from the battlefield was the same as that on it.
The Best American Sports Writing of the Century.
I have no doubt he would have been a huge success no matter what he put his mind to,
What happened very quickly was a move away from the bravery of the kids fighting.
As if he were a man of a certain kind of secular faith,
There would be a very nice small book in it about another time and era in America, a kind of sweetness and friendship,
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.
QUESTION: Do you know what the greatest test is? ANSWER:Do you still get excited about what you do when you get up in the morning?
Fear was the terrible secret of the battlefield and could afflict the brave as well as the timid. Worse it was contagious, and could destroy a unit before a battle even began. Because of that, commanders were first and foremost in the fear suppression business.
If there is anything that is important to America, it is that you are not a prisoner of the past.
What looked safe was not safe. What looked hard and unsafe was probably safer. Anyway, safe was somewhere else in the world.
The byline is a replacement for many other things, not the least of them money. If someone ever does a great psychological profile of journalism as a profession, what will be apparent will be the need for gratification—if not instant, then certainly relatively immediate. Reporters take sustenance from their bylines; they are a reflection of who you are, what you do, and why, to an uncommon degree, you exist. ... A journalist always wonders: If my byline disappears, have I disappeared as well?
Nixon, who spent much of his career attacking the press and saying he was a victim of the press, was in fact created by the press, in this case the L.A. Times.