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Battle of Lies

Prize-winning war reporter Paul Watson on truth, mayhem and faith.

By Cynthia Yoo, 13 Sep 2007, TheTyee.ca

Paul Watson (with with earphones)

Paul Watson says his Pulitzer is a mixed bag. (Self-portrait.)

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  • Where War Lives
  • Paul Watson
  • McClelland and Stewart (2007)

Paul Watson will always have his Pulitzer, whether he likes it or not. He has mixed feelings about it because while his photos of Sgt. William Cleveland's corpse desecrated by enraged Mogadishu mobs in 1993 may have won him the award, the same images won a PR victory for Bin Ladin and led to U.S. retreat from Somalia and Rwanda.

Those two narratives, and the ironies within them, lie at the heart of being a war correspondent, and are among those in his memoir, Where War Lives. Part analytical, part personal, the memoir analyses the complex chain of events leading from Somalia in 1993 to post-9-11 Afghanistan and Iraq, and also turns inward: how did this kid from the 'burbs and classmate of Stephen Harper become addicted to reporting the most dangerous conflicts of the world? That and how he survived it are at the crux of Where War Lives.

Surviving the life of a war correspondent is difficult; one that's too difficult for many, including Kevin Carter. Famous for his photo of a vulture waiting for a starving Sudanese girl and for killing himself a year later, Carter's story is one that Watson clearly struggles over and identifies with. And Watson points out that unlike soldiers or aid workers who can do something about the horrors they face, journalists are helpless as they are "condemned to watch, listen and report."

Watson's survival technique seems to be a fascination with the ironic and irrational twists that lie within the reporting of war and conflict. The photo of Cleveland was Watson's second try, for example. He had to go back to the mob scene because earlier full-body shots showed a "sliver of Cleveland's scrotum" and such indecencies wouldn't be distributed by U.S. media. Watson puts it, "As always, obscene violence is okay."

Watson talked to The Tyee about how photos and people lie, how shooting pictures can leave victims and how to figure out the truth in a story. Here is what he had to say...

On war and lies

"Before 9-11, there wasn't a lot of interest in war reporting.... But after 9-11, there was that surge of patriotism in the U.S. and in Canada because of our involvement in Afghanistan. I'm sure people were drawn to it who had never done it before and I do see more people in those situations who haven't learned along the way.

"The most important thing to learn about war is not to keep yourself alive but it's how to figure out who's lying to you. War, more than any other story, is founded on lies, surrounded by lies and perpetuated by lies. And if you're not going at it knowing that most of what you see has to be tested constantly to try to figure out what the truth is, I don't think you're going to do a good job.

"You have to be extraordinarily skeptical when talking to people in conflict. For instance, here's the Kosovo example again. It didn't take very long to find an ethnic Albanian in a refugee camp who's had a baby that had its head cut off. It may have been true or it may not have been true.

"Generally, a lot of reporting about these conflicts is done simply on faith. Well-intentioned reporters ask people what happened in their village and they just write down what they're told. But how do you know if it's true? It's our job to test it."

On how photos lie

"Ordinary people think photos tell the truth more than words do. But in some sense, they lie. The example that people talk about most is that picture by Kevin Carter of the vulture standing over the Sudanese girl. I knew Kevin. I worked with him quite a bit; he used to snort Ritalin off my floor.

"That photo was taken at a feeding centre, so what you don't see outside the frame is a busy feeding centre. From the photo, you get that sense that it's way out in the middle of nowhere and it's him, the baby and the vulture. But off to the side of him would be an overcrowded feeding centre. When people jumped on him and asked him: instead of taking the picture why didn't you help rescue the girl? There were other people whose job it was to feed the child. He ended up killing himself, but for more complicated reasons than that."

On photo regret

[Watson decided not to take photos of a government-sanctioned stoning in Somalia, fearing such a photo would be manipulated like his earlier photo of Sgt. Cleveland.] "If you ask me now do I regret not taking the photo? I do. That's a good example of what the public ought to understand -- the need for journalists to just do it. Because if you just don't do it, then you're playing God. If I decide on what I need to inform the public and what I shouldn't, then I'm filtering far too much. I should have just taken the picture and let the editors decide what they would do with it. If they didn't use it, 10 years later I would still have a picture which showed a portion of the truth about the Islamic courts movement."

On what he's trying to achieve

"I often ask myself what's the purpose? Is the purpose to write really nicely written stories? We all like nicely written stories. I'm as entertained by them as anyone else. But if it's not getting anywhere through the lies, closer to the centre of the truth, then it's not worth a lot of our time."

On taking sides

"There's a famous story of a small town newspaper reporter during the Somalia conflict. The reporter was [not embedded and] on a paid junket to a Canadian camp in Somalia, where he just happened to see some Canadian soldier being lifted out on a stretcher. He asked questions and they tried to brush him off, but he persisted. He was the one who broke the story of the execution through torture of the Somali prisoner. So embedding is not completely wrong but you really have to try to maintain your independence. If you get a bullshit answer, then you've got to make some enemies.

"Part of the story [of war] is certainly from the point of view of the military. But if you're going to err on one side it should be toward independence. Take the risks and get out and see as much as you can see, because it's totally different."

On MSM, post-9-11

"I think the [media] has gotten worse.... It seems to me that especially after 9-11, the mainstream media has been more willing [to believe] that if you dissent too strongly, you're not a patriot. As a result they've been more willing to follow the official line. It's challenged, but challenged within acceptable limits."

[Tyee]

Cynthia Yoo is a Vancouver-based freelance writer.

11 Comments:

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  • G West

    4 years ago

    Thanks Cythia

    nice piece of work

  • skeptikool

    4 years ago

    Will this medium bring about change?

    The amazing thing is that so many can still be suckered. Throughout history wars have been preceded by lies.

    How much easier to blow away a sub-human enemy that your soldiers have been told has ripped babies from incubators.

    While Saddam Hussein has paid the ultimate price, G.W. Bush and his many accomplices are still at large.

    I expect little change until a serious attempt to expose and bring to trial all war criminals.

    How very different this past century might have been had there been a less compliant media. Perhaps this medium will help, or force, the necessary changes.

  • Davey-boy

    4 years ago

    What would Orwell say?

    My grade 12's are presently reading 1984. All were born post Cold War, obviously, so Orwell's information-controlled universe seems so... well, fictional to them.

    Articles like this one, and Geoffery Simpson's piece in the Globe, remind us that Orwell's warnings remain relevant today. Big Brother ain't totally dead, eh?

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Don't forget to have them

    Davey-boy
    Don't forget to have them explore the parallels between today's lottery fascinations with the omnipresent line-ups of the ‘proles’ to buy tickets on ‘their’ dream. Remember that Orwell called the Lottery management functionaries ‘The Ministry of Plenty’.

    In ‘1984’ the lottery was a scam designed to pay out small dribs and drabs against the false dream of a big payday - in our time the same mechanism operates and the big payouts (at odds of 14M to one) seem to keep alive the 'hope' of the people who play the 'game' of making it in a culture where the odds against achieving even modest middle-class success are almost as astronomical.

    As lottery revenues in this province are now dumped into general revenue there is no longer any connection to good works, charity and social spending - not so very different from the way proceeds, in ‘1984’, delivered the financing for the never-ending war.

    Even the fabulous payouts which are, in the absence of a truly redistributive tax system, about the only hope the average girl or guy has of striking it rich, serve about the same purpose in British Columbia today.

    I’m actually surprised that pee wee hasn’t instituted a ‘national lotto’ to pay for our involvement in Afghanistan…perhaps he’ll do that when he gets his cherished majority!

  • BC Mary

    4 years ago

    Imagine Paul Watson at work on Vancouver Sun ...

    .
    It's hard to believe that a journalist like Paul Watson could have been here in Vancouver and able to breathe the same toxic air as the newsmen in the three daily newspapers in Vancouver and Victoria.

    Imagine a fighting, working, principled journalist like this, watching the historic police raids on the B.C. Legislature and ... yeah, right ... waiting quietly for over 3-1/2 years for the next fragment of information to be spoonfed to him?

    Imagine a responsible daily newspaper with the backbone to hire him and publish his findings? What a wonderful world that would be.

    Btw, the next pre-trial hearing on the Basi Virk Basi / BC Rail case is scheduled for B.C. Supreme Court, Vancouver, Monday morning 9:30 AM, and we can be doggone sure that none of the 3 big daily newspapers will tell the public that. We'll be lucky if they mention it even after the event.

    Pig farmers, yes, their own daily headline for months on end.

    But was Canada's 3rd largest railway taken from public ownership into private hands by questionable means? That, I've been told by two bigtime CanWest editors, is (their term) "non-news".

    It's great to hear about Paul Watson's work. I hope he sticks around B.C.
    .

  • Stump

    4 years ago

    1984

    Quote:
    My grade 12's are presently reading 1984.

    I am so glad to hear that. I've recently gotten blank looks from 20-somethings when I mention both Orwell's book and Brave New World. Both were English class staples when I went to high-school (late 70s) and invaluable in decoding the lies we're often fed today. I guess I'd be getting greedy if I suggested Farenheit 451 and Player Piano should also be required reading before you're allowed out into the real world?

  • monty

    4 years ago

    Basi/Virk/Basi

    Bill Teilemann's blog report on this trial.
    Georgia Straight publishes info the dailies won't touch.

  • BC Mary

    4 years ago

    Many thanks to Bill Tieleman

    Monty, I didn't mention Bill Tieleman because he's still away on holiday and probably won't be back in time to tell people about the next Basi Virk Basi / BC Rail hearing on Monday 17 September.

    But yes, he's a reliable and much more investigative journalist than anybody (except maybe Neal Hall). Bill has generously given real time and effort to the Basi Virk Basi affair and has generously shared with others, like me.

    The point here is that there are 3 major daily B.C. newspapers which are avoiding the B.C. Rail case. Three major dailies with nobody even close to the ethical or professional standard of Paul West. Or Bill Tieleman.

    The managing editor of the biggest B.C. daily assured me personally that they were working on a Basi Virk Basi "piece" which would be ready in 2 or 3 days ... that's over 3 weeks ago ... and no sign of it yet. The dubious sale of Canada's 3rd largest railway. The most important trial in B.C. history. And Big Media goes silent. What do you make of that?

    I think it's an outrage. So Citizen Journalists have done what we can. See:

    The Legislature Raids
    http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/

    or House of Infamy at
    http://houseofinfamy.blogspot.com

    or Pacific Gazetteer
    http://pacificgazetteer.blogspot.com/

    .

  • doggone

    4 years ago

    NGO worker not so great either

    '93 I was watching the unloading of a fuel tank truck in Grbanga, Liberia. We had that day "carried" the tanker through military check points from Cote d'Iviore. (For those who have never been there fuel is right up there with food and water - forget the weapons -the weapons are everywhere).

    Three Liberian men came to me and inform me that they represent a movement which demands our NGO (MSF) to repair the generators and transmission lines so that the local area (Cottington University Campus) or CUC would have electrical power and pressurized water. I looked around. There was my driver and a few other Liberians we had "hired" to secure the fuel. One of the security came over to get me out of the situation and I waved him off.

    I had no current information and was still labouring under the notion that Canadians were somehow above condemnation for violations. These three guys had the news that Canadian forces were accused in the Baledwain Incedent (Somalia). I told them I would bring their concerns to my team and superiors but I was fairly confident we could not fire up the generators and fix power and water even for the local area.

    Watson seems a bit disjointed (or the above exerpt certainly does to me) and I think I understand why: There is no sensible way to tell these stories.

    Maybe the problem is that any sensible person is still even "tryin'" to bring a picture of this chaos to people who still imagine their RRSP investment matters to anyone

  • Clawman

    4 years ago

    what makes 'em tick . . .

    "It's hard to believe that a journalist like Paul Watson could have been here in Vancouver and able to breathe the same toxic air as the newsmen in the three daily newspapers in Vancouver and Victoria."

    BC Mary, you might want to ease up a bit on what you see as the invertebrate culture of the local media. There are a lot of good well-intentioned people in this group working under near-impossible conditions, under the yoke of near-sighted, eye-fixed-on-the-bottom-line bosses.

    Given an opportunity, such as Watson's, to work in places where they have to rely on their own wits and perspective and sense of decency, they too would likely find their professionalism. In this career, often, it's the story that makes the man (woman).

  • BC Mary

    4 years ago

    Clawman, I defend journos repeatedly ... just not their bosses

    Clawman, you're correct insofar as what I wrote (above). If I had time, I'd dig up some of the pitches I've made in defense of the front-line journalists exactly as you've described them here, bottle-necked by newsroom management or proprietors. Fact is ... ridiculous fact is ... that I'm busy trying to fill in the blanks left in the Big Dailies where the story of B.C. Rail and government methods oughta be.

    Please drop in at The Legislature Raids and scroll down a bit to where I ask the Managing Editor of Vancouver Sun if it's too much to ask for some coverage of the Basi Virk Basi / BC Rail trial.

    http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/

    He gently replied with the good news that, yes, they were working on a piece which would be ready to go in "2 or 3 days". It wasn't true, Clawman.

    What's more, he became angry when I passed this information on to the public. But the good thing is, he created a wider awareness -- just as you've described -- so that more people understand the difficulties journalists face. That's the toxic atmosphere I spoke of (above).

    Meantime, since the Managing Editor's promise almost a month ago, neither Basi, Virk, Basi nor the BC Rail case -- the most important trial in B.C. history -- have been given a mention. Pig farms, oh yes. Polygamy, sure. But nothing that risks reflecting poorly on the chosen ones.

    Good luck to you, Clawman.

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