Anthony Shadid, New York Times Reporter, Dies in Syria
Anthony Shadid at The World studio (Photo: PRI's The World)
New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, who twice won the Pulitzer Prize, has died on assignment in Syria.
The 43-year-old is believed to have suffered an asthma attack on Thursday triggered by an allergic reaction.
An American of Lebanese descent, Shadid covered the US invasion of Iraq and its aftermath for the Washington Post newspaper.
He won his Pulitzers in 2004 and 2010, and was nominated for his coverage of the Arab uprisings in 2011.
Shadid, a fluent Arabic speaker, was one of three NYT journalists who were held for more than a week by the Gaddafi government in Libya during the uprising there in March last year.
NYT Executive Editor, Jill Abramson, said: “Anthony died as he lived – determined to bear witness to the transformation sweeping the Middle East.”
Shadid had been gathering material inside Syria before falling ill.
Photographer and colleague Tyler Hicks said they were walking behind some horses towards the Syria-Turkey border when Shadid began to show symptoms.
Anchor Marco Werman speaks with political columnist and author Rami Khouri in Beirut, Lebanon about Anthony Shadid.
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Marco Werman: Both Lybia and Syria were stories close to the heart of New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid. He was in Syria on assignment when he died yesterday. The 43-year-old Shadid apparently succumbed to an asthma attack, brought on by the horses his guides were using to escort him across the border into Turkey. Today, Anthony Shadid is being mourned by all those who knew him, either personally or professionally. Among them is political columnist and author Rami Khouri, in Beirut. Rami, you first met Anthony Shadid in Amman, Jordan back in 2000 while Shadid was en route to Iraq to head the Baghdad bureau of the Washington Post. What most impressed you about him when you met him?
Rami Khouri: I think it was the combination of his quiet, low-key style, but his incisive questions and his desire and his ability to probe into Arab societies and to try to really understand what was happening at the level of the individual, the neighborhood, the community, the political and religious and cultural and sectarian and business forces in the countries. To give them a nuanced view, actually, of what was going on in Arab countries, rather than a superficial, one-dimensional view, which was so prevalent in many media outlets around the world.
Werman: We often think of foreign correspondents as often hiring translators to help them understand the local language. Anthony Shadid was an American of Lebanese descent, and he was also fluent in Arabic, which has to be a very helpful tool in the toolbox of anybody covering the Middle East. How crucial do you think his language skills were in getting to the heart of the stories, to telling stories we in the West had not heard yet?
Khouri: Well, his Arabic improved over the years. When he first came out to the Middle East, his Arabic was basic, but it wasn’t as good as it was in recent years. He definitely worked on it and used it a lot. But it was really more than, it wasn’t so much that his Arabic language that was crucial, it was his character, his vibes. The way that he dealt with people. He was, he was an empathetic person. He interviewed, you know, ordinary people as well as the biggest political and economic and business leaders in the Arab region. And for all of them, he gave them the same attention. And people who were interviewed by him or who just had a chat with him felt that he actually really cared about what he was writing about. And, in a way, he was writing stories about the region, but he was also, in a way, exploring his own heritage in many dimensions: in Egypt, in Lebanon, and in Iraq. And he used to go to places like Bahrain and Turkey in his travels, and that came through. He had a great sense of observation. He would look at a scene, and you see this in his writing. I teach reporting and writing at the American University of Beirut and other places, and I often use his stories. In recent years I used them as examples of keen observation, but you can go to any scene. Go to a tire-repair shop, and you can sit there for half an hour and come up with a really fascinating narrative about that entire society. And he was able to do that because he took the time to do it. And this was the critical element, along with his empathy. He took the time to do the reporting, which many correspondents have done less and less of over the years. He actually went out into these societies and spent time with ordinary people in out-of-the-way places, and it showed in his writing.
Werman: Rami Khouri, what will be the enduring memory for you of Anthony Shadid?
Khouri: You know, his journey, in a way. The totality of his adult career. I’ve known him since the year 2000, so the last twelve years, and when I knew him he wasn’t quite, you know, that well known. He was still in his early years. He had just finished a book about Egypt, which I thought had some interesting observations, but I thought some of it was debatable and we had a couple of good chats about that. But it was his journey, you know, he, he was an American of Arab, Lebanese origin. He came back and he rebuilt his grandfather’s house in Marjayoun in south Lebanon and he took great pleasure in taking people there. And I think he, he represented the best of America in the Arab world. He was, he was a walking monument to, to American soft power in Arab culture and he represented to me the best of journalism, as well. Just a very diligent, empathetic street reporter on the beat, and his beat was the extraordinary story of the Arab world and its linkages with the Western world and the transitions it was going through. All of those things together. It was his journey as a reporter, but the beat was a kind of almost transcontinental story of the two worlds that defined him.
Werman: Anthony Shadid and his talents will be missed a lot. Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, thank you very much.
Khouri: Thank you.
Werman: Here’s Anthony Shadid speaking with The World last fall about what it had been like for him covering the Arab Spring.
Anthony Shadid: Like I mentioned earlier, we’re dealing with three revolutions and three uprisings now, and the minute you do a story on Syria, you try to turn your attention to Bahrain, you try to keep a sense of what’s happening in Egypt, and how is Tunisia’s revolution playing out. I think the feeling I have more often than not is just simply being overwhelmed.
Werman: Needless to say, Anthony Shadid’s work remained stellar throughout. We put our most recent interviews with Anthony Shadid on our website, theworld.org.
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The World has featured Anthony Shadid in our broadcast on several occasions. Below are three of the most recent conversations.
October 20, 2011
Lisa Mullins talks with Anthony Shadid following the death of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and how that fits into the broader arc of the Arab Spring.
September 12, 2011
Lisa Mullins speaks with Anthony Shadid about how the Arab uprisings are affecting the stability of the Middle East.
September 30, 2010
Lisa Mullins talks with Anthony Shadid, then Baghdad correspondent for the New York Times, about the stalled progress in Iraq’s ability to take over the reigns from US forces.
Below, Anthony Shadid discusses what it’s like covering the Arab Spring.
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