I'd like to apologize about the Paul Moran piece below. I don't know that Paul Moran was working for Rendon Group at the time of his tragic death and I should not have said or insinuated that he did. I stepped over the line from valid criticism of government and private firms to smearing a man who can't defend himself, and that was wrong.
A commenter, calling himself Eric Campbell, who was the reporter with Moran at the time of his death, wrote in and said this:I am the ABC reporter who was working with Paul Moran when he was killed. The immense grief his family is suffering has been compounded by the unending repetition of false claims about him on the internet.
It is probably too late to repair the damage, but in the interests of decency, people should recognise the following:
Paul's assignment for the ABC in northern Iraq Iraq was as my cameraman. He was not the reporter. It is absurd and wrong to say there was a conflict of interest.
Paul was not working for the Rendon Group at the same time. He was never any employee of the Rendon Group. Like many freelance journalists, he did occasional audio visual production work Rendon and other PR companies.
His work was never propaganda. It was corporate videos, news webs-sites, and in the case of his original work in Kurdistan, production and training work to help the Kurds set up a TV station.
He rightly felt sympathy for the plight of Kurdish civilians after seeing the suffering they had been through under Saddam Hussein. He felt the media should do more to report this, as well as many other issues he felt strongly about such as the plight of refugees and asylum seekers. There is no contradiction between that and his work as a cameraman or reporter for such broadcasters as the BBC and ABC.
He obtained the interview with an Iraqi defector through a contact at the INC he had worked with in Kurdistan. That is not sinister. It is how journalists get stories.
Paul never made any secret about his freelance production work. He simply did it to pay the bills betwen broadcast assignments, like any other freelancer.
He was a man of great integrity who was widely loved. The fact that John Rendon came to his funeral in Adelaide, along with dozens of others from around the world who had worked with him, is simply a reflection of that.
Go ahead and criticise the INC, the CIA, the Pentagon, whoever. But do not make Paul the villain, because he wasn't.
He took on a risky assignment to work for the ABC during the war Kurdistan because he believed the Kurds were an important part of the story. He was disdainful of journalists who just got news from press briefings, believing they should always go to where the story was. He paid for this with his life.
Eric Campbell
Reporter
ABC TV
The IP number that showed up with the comment traceroutes back to a machine in Australia, so I'm going to accept that Campbell is the author of this note.
I'd like to extend my apologies to Moran's family and to his friends. But most of all, to my readers. It was shoddy journalism.
However, I should have made it more clear that I did not consider Paul a "villain" in this. I felt that the most stinging criticism was rightfully aimed at Rendon and the Pentagon. I still consider it questionable for a journalistic enterprise such as ABC to hire someone with ties to a PR firm so closely tied to the Washington power structure, but that should not be read as a criticism of Moran. As Campbell pointed out, he took jobs to pay bills -- something every freelancer has to do. Including myself. (Never for a PR firm, but for magazines that don't contribute to my foreign policy aspirations.)
My sincerest apologies to Moran's friends and family.
I don’t know about all that. I’ve always thought that just because a person is deceased is no reason to cannonize them. One is no more a saint because one dies than one is a pineapple for wearing a spikey-topped hat. Nobody who does business with our current federal government can hope to escape its taint, and before our current political regime, it was considered American to question and to demand proof of the truth. Your questions did not strike me as villainization of Mr. Moran’s character nor an intent to wound anyone’s feelings, and it is perhaps a bit tres dramatique to require an apology in the absence of malice. I intend no hurt and no unkindness, but because one man makes a heated statement about Mr. Moran’s righteousness, must we automatically bow, scrape and beat ourselves with thornbrushes? Remember, folks, there have been many people killed in Iraq thru no fault of their own, and every person’s family is grieving. A high-profile death is no more sacred than the others. Since we are in the mood, I apologize if this sounds brusque; I do not mean it that way.
We are still in this pathetic quandry: our nation’s government is so rotten to the core that anyone associated with it risks being suspect. (If you don’t believe in guilt by association, try spending a weekend in prison wearing an orange jumpsuit because you were at the house of somebody suspected of illegal activities.) That is what I took from the Moran post, nothing more and nothing less. If no sin is committed, no penance is appropriate.
I agree with jan. I think that we elevate some deaths to the detriment of the masses of other deaths, each one just as important…
I agree with jan. I think that we elevate some deaths to the detriment of the masses of other deaths, each one just as important…
nice of you to come clean chris. appreciate the honesty of your journalism.
I think your apology showed real sensitivity—and real guts. Almost every day we read and hear the most stupid, glaring comments from jounalists, commentators, and politicians that are either self serving or simply malacious for the sake of being malacious; and not only do they not aploligize, but seem to be proud of their inane statements. Every day logic and honesty is put on the rack and stretched, twisted,and beaten until an exhausted and broken corpse is cast to the ground. So thank you for your good faith in sincerely apoligizing for a small error. Your comments weren’t that bad; your heart was in the right place: trying to address a perceived wrong. If we could just get a few of the real torturers of the truth to apologize…but that would involve a real change of heart and as Miller says: Who can change the hearts of men.
I agree with the above commenters and I also believe you have showed integrity. You have been a good source for on-the-scene unbiased information in a sea of twisted official press releases. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish those that are in the wrong place at the wrong time, associated with someone tainted. Not everyone associated with little conspiracies knows they are part of one, so cleverly are they orchestrated. Your style and ethics have enabled us to see slices of humanity through the lives of those we would never have otherwise understood. Your pure motive to get the truth out there, unvarnished and personal, is deserving of respect. Your honesty and responsibility are refreshing.
Thanks, all. It was, obviously, not a fun post to put up there, but I firmly believe when corrections or apologies are in order, they should be as prominent as the original charge.
nice move - thx chris.
In this day and age, it has been a true pleasure to have found a site (and community) that is indeed in search of truth. Everyone makes mistakes, and it takes a big person to admit it and want to correct it.
I also agree with the very insightful remarks of those above this post.
Really, what I want to add here is my sentiment - it gives me solace to read your site, and to read the posts of others on this site (obviously not ALL of them!). With so many people shouting their agendas, it’s like finding a nice calm place where people actually talk, and share, in the interest of finding the truth. Thanks to everyone who shares that view.
You are aware, I trust Chris, the ABC you speak of is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not the American version thereof. Eric Campbell is a highly respected journalist and documentary maker in this country, and was indeed with Moran on the day he was killed. For the ABC the employ Campbell/Moran has nothing whatever to do with Rendon and would simply be another freelance contract for Campbell/Moran. As Eric Campbell pointed out, it was just another way to pay the bills. Thanx for your apology anyway.
It’s very good that you come clean about your mistakes. This is the other great test of independent journalism, and I think you passed. Good class act!
Everyone makes mistakes is definitely a true statement. Lord knows I have. However, I feel journalists inherently have a higher standard to ascribe to. Before making disparaging comments about a man who can not defend his name and reputation, perhaps you should have followed the age old journalistic standard and “checked it out”. It won’t remove the pain his family has had to endure but I do applaud you for printing an apology.
Thank you for your comments. It is the first time since this whole business began that any journalist or internet commentator has had the integrity to correct the record.
Regarding the IP number, I am normally based in Beijing as the ABC’s China corresponent but have been on sick leave in Sydney.
My position can be verified at www.abc.net.au/international/
Eric Campbell
Reporter
ABC TV
PS
Thanks for having the courage to apologise over your hasty condemnation of Paul Moran.
Journalism should be about facts, not opinion.
As a long-term friend and colleague of Paul Moran’s, the only FACT that I can add to this particular debate at this stage is that Paul was employed on a freelance basis by the Rendon Group as a photographer to help put together a website in Kosovo about four years ago. If there has been any connection since then between Paul and the Rendon Group, perhaps John Rendon would like to comment on the matter. Yes, Paul did support the cause of Kurdish independence, as any right-minded person would. But he was too good a journalist to let his personal opinions get in the way of the facts.