The journalist who took those pictures was probably expecting a very boring an non-remunerative day. I bet they made bank given what happened. I hope so, because that was some serious professionalism not to shit their pants and run.
This is what I was thinking: "I'm here. Even if I get hit and injured, or killed, I'm a journalist. I have to do my work. I could run away without making any photos. ... But I wouldn't have a proper answer if people later ask me: 'Why didn't you take pictures?'"
For future reference, "Because I didn't want to get shot and killed," is a fine and proper answer.
It would certainly be my answer. This guy is clearly made of sterner stuff than me.
2: That's the kind of thinking that leaves you tragically stuck in one job for 20 years.
Is it wrong that, when I looked at the picture in the NYT yesterday, the first thing that struck me was the Saturday Night Fever pose of the shooter?
Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful tweet-stream.
Some lucky Thracian has my noble shield:
I had to run; I dropped it in a wood.
But I got clear away, thank God! So hang
The shield! I'll get another, just as good.
- Archolochus (c. 650 BCE)
5: Can't find it now, but a juxtaposition of the two images came through my tweetstream.
http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_15786.html#1933701
The ambassador is almost certainly an accomplice to twelve murders carried out in Turkey over the last few years by officers or agents of the Russian clandestine services.
Al Qaeda has claimed that he supports their cause because they say the one finger in the air is a symbol of theirs. I always knew disco sucked.
I suspect the journalist was pretty safe in that the shooter appeared to want it made very clear that what happened was an assassination and sacrifice and not a generic terrorist attack or spree killing. Journalist couldn't know that at the time, possibly.
Still unclear even as to the status of shooter (cop or fired), who was behind him, what their motivations are.
May remain so. Fair to remain skeptical toward almost all reporting.
Al Qaeda infiltration into the American heartland runs deep: http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/2a9b9989c44144fcb8efa5814aafc4af/enthusiastic-sports-fan-with-foam-finger-raises-his-arms-in-the-number-b72f9m.jpg
Nah, that guy is saying there are two gods, blasphemer.
13- Didn't he shoot three other people besides the ambassador?
Guards? Cops? "Three people" does not refute me, nor tell me much. OTOH, he didn't use an Uzi with 5 clips, or a bomb. Was Zapruder in grave danger?
As I said, media must be read cautiously, but it is being called an assassination.
But I would frankly rather be "refuted" than argue pointlessly.
It's weird to think that people born after I graduated from college are now old enough to be assassins.
People being born right now will someday be adults and will have no personal memory of this assassination!
Looking at wikipedia's list of assassinations by country, Colombia really punches above its weight.
IT'S SO WEIRD THAT MY APPARENTLY INCONSEQUENTIAL EXISTENCE IS THE PURPOSE OF ALL HISTORY
Interesting detail from the LRB blog:
Vladimir Putin was informed of the assassination while on his way to watch a play written by Alexander Griboyedov, Nicholas I's ambassador to Persia, who was killed in 1829 when a mob stormed the Russian embassy in Tehran.
20: I knew a chap once who'd been the bodyguard for the mayor of Medellin. It was regarded as a good gig to have because at least you didn't have to do jungle patrols. I guess he was good at his job because the mayor was still alive when he demobbed.
