Breaking News: A Stunning and Memorable Account of Reporting from Some of the Most Dangerous Places in the World
Written by Martin Fletcher
Narrated by Stephen Hoye
3/5
()
About this audiobook
These extraordinary, real-life adventure stories each examine different dilemmas facing a foreign correspondent. Can you eat the food of a warlord who stole it from the starving? Do you listen politely to a terrorist threatening to blow up your children? Do you ask the tough questions of a Khmer Rouge killer, knowing he is your only ticket out of the Cambodian jungle? And, above all, how do you stay sane when you're faced with so much pain?
Martin Fletcher
Martin Fletcher was 12 years old when he survived the Bradford fire in which his father, brother, uncle and grandfather were all killed. As an adult he has devoted himself to investigating and seeking the truth about the disaster, and Fifty-Six is the culmination of his extensive research. During that time he has also obtained a BA in Politics with International Studies and MA in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick, together with both the LPC and ACA. He lives in London.
Related to Breaking News
Related audiobooks
Save my Children: An Astonishing Tale of Survival and its Unlikely Hero Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCasting Off: A memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeja New Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am A Hitman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing Time: The True Story of the "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nathan Englander, Dinner at the Center of the Earth Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lying in Wait Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Biography of X : A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overcoming Hate Through Dialogue: Confronting Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry with Conversation and Coffee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWeaving The Fabric Of The World With Our Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Back, After the Break Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Americana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bodies from the Library 2: Selected Lost Stories of Mystery and Suspense by Masters of the Golden Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dawn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Apprentice of Buchenwald: The True Story of the Teenage Boy Who Sabotaged Hitler's War Machine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrange Bodies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Brainwyrms Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Goodbye Kiss Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 39 Steps Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Survivors: A Story of War, Inheritance, and Healing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Rings: A Story of Love and War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Man Without a Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Broken World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Renia's Diary: A Holocaust Journal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Biography & Memoir For You
And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Dream House: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Angela's Ashes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hit and Run Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghosts That Haunt Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dolly Parton: The Life of a Legendary American Singer, Actor, and Businesswoman Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Do You Know Who I Am?: Battling Imposter Syndrome in Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lucky Man: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Breaking News
9 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Here is a book published in 2008 about Martin Fletcher's dangerous career that started in earnest with his own filmography during 1974 when he was on scene for the fighting in the Yom Kippur war. The interesting thing about the episodes in this book, is that he begins the book explaining how many colleagues did not survive the dangerous journeys that reporting on unrest and war zones required them to travel to, and how he lost people in his travel group to land mines and other hazards. He never gives up, and he puts each incident in its own compartamentalized area of his mental and film diary. It's all in the can, Martin Fletcher, but let me mention that it's tough on the reader to get through it all, for there's not a dent in your teflon thick skin until much much later in this biographical tale.If you're like me, you'll be astonished that he has thrown himself all in, time after time, to just suck the gory photo-ops into his film reel as if he is a disembodied mechanistic security camera. Then he parties hearty. The difference that comes across is just that Martin has a quixotic mercurial role to repeat in each day of his working life when he blindly rushes among armored vehicles or refugee tents and fills more and more film cans as he shifts himself into the audience/historian/unbiased reporter role - talking with war lords and their victims alike. He is savvy about the gut-wrenching attention-getting situations that will grab viewers, but is not able to convincingly register any unanalytical Moments except as they might affect Martin's standing in his news team. For those of you who stick around to the latter chapters, just let me hint there is some movement toward humanity at the end of that period of life where he seems to lack peripheral vision apart from what fits in his viewfinder.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In this book, NBC foreign correspondent Martin Fletcher talks about his career in journalism, which lead to covering a number of horrific events from suicide bombers in Israel to genocide in Rwanda. Along the way, he also stops to discuss journalistic ethics (is it worse to film a dying person so that their final moments aren't peaceful or to not film them so that the world remains oblivious to suffering and does nothing to stop it?), his own family's history as Holocaust survivors -- and victims -- and the role this plays in his views toward the 'good guys' and 'bad guys' in each conflict he records, and the ways his field and he personally sometimes failed (like unwittingly amplifying the effects of colonialism in Somalia). Although a little bit dated at times (e.g., a reference to Bin Laden still alive and in hiding), this book is interesting and thought-provoking. It is not for the faint of heart as Fletcher describes in some detail violent deaths that he witnessed, or reports on the experiences of those who narrowly survived horrific acts of violence. This isn't exactly a history book, although Fletcher usually provides the most relevant information; however, some readers may want to brush on their modern events knowledge before or after reading this.