DelCorso's Gallery by Philip Caputo

Author:Philip Caputo [Caputo, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-82205-5
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

What’s wrong Mr. Y. Chen? Don’t you recognize a color story when you see one? Laughing to himself, Bolton sent a reply.

Y. CHEN: 282142 ATTACK UNGARBLED. SEND AS IS. BOLTON/SAIGON.

Standing over the teletypes, he watched the lines of his obituary click-clacking over the wires. If it was a bit sophomoric, it was at least the most honest story he had ever written.

292401 GREY OBIT SPECIAL TO HAMMOND TIMES EXBOLTON: SAIGON—INTERNATIONAL PRESS SERVICE CORRESPONDENT WILLIAM REYNOLDS GREY, A NATIVE OF HAMMOND, INDIANA, WAS BLOWN TO PIECES MONDAY NIGHT (SAIGON TIME) DURING A VIET CONG ROCKET ATTACK ON TAN SON NHUT AIRBASE. ANOTHER AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT, MICHAEL EDWARDS, WAS MERELY WOUNDED, PROVING ONCE AGAIN THAT IPS CAN BEAT AP ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.

GREY, 23, DIED IN PURSUIT OF BANG-BANG, WHICH IS CURRENT JOURNALISTIC ARGOT FOR WAR DISPATCHES THAT ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE THE IMMEDIACY, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE SUPERFICIALITY, OF TELEVISION. TOTALLY UNINFORMATIVE, BANG-BANG STORIES SATISFY A JADED PUBLIC’S APPETITE FOR VICARIOUS BLOODSHED AND THUS HELP TO SELL NEWSPAPERS. FOR HIS HEROIC ATTEMPT TO BRING THE SIGHTS, SOUNDS, AND SMELLS OF THE BATTLEFIELD TO THE AMERICAN BREAKFAST TABLE, GREY WAS POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED A FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR BONUS BY ACTING SAIGON BUREAU CHIEF, H. W. BOLTON.

BORN IN HAMMOND ON JUNE 26, 1951, GREY WAS A 1972 GRADUATE OF THE NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, ALTHOUGH YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW IT BY THE QUALITY OF HIS WORK. REGARDED AS INCOMPETENT BY HIS COLLEAGUES, HE WAS ALSO KNOWN FOR HIS ARROGANCE, SMART MOUTH, AND GENERAL UNWILLINGNESS TO DO WHAT HE WAS TOLD. THE EMOTIONS OF HIS FELLOW NEWSMEN UPON LEARNING OF HIS DEATH WERE BEST SUMMED UP BY VETERAN IPS REPORTER AND NOTED OPIUM ADDICT RICHARD VINCENT:

+I WON’T MISS THE LITTLE BASTARD. HE WASN’T WORTH THE POWDER IT TOOK TO BLOW HIM TO HELL. + ENDS/BOLTON/SAIGON.

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