They Don't Write Like That Anymore

I recently saw an obituary, in an English music magazine strangely enough, and only belatedly so, because of how long it takes for these magazines to reach our shores.

It was for Australian journalist, Murray Sayle (1-1-26 to 18-09-2010), and it prompted me to look further. In doing so, I found an obituary (among several) in one of our local papers and had to marvel at what a story his life made.

As a journalist, he covered half-a-dozen wars, located Francis Chichester on his solo yacht trip and on the same trip, went on to track down Che Guevara and be the first to report that he had left Cuba to take the revolution to South America. He also managed to interview infamous British spy, Philby, in Moscow, the only journalist to do so after Philby's defection. His career at The Times ended when he resigned on principle over the Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry, his viewpoint being eventually vindicated a few months before his death. After leaving The Times, he spent 30 years living and working in Japan. Somewhere in there, he also climbed Mt Everest. All in all, it sounds like he was a pretty remarkable individual.

I wonder what he made of today's journalism with so many stories revolving around celebrity and research amounting to little more than running searches on Twitter.