Every young reporter is on the hunt for “the big one” – the story that will guarantee a page one headline, grab the readers’ interest and give the journalist a chance for newsroom fame. At least that’s what it was like for me, back in the day, when I was starting out and wondering how to make it into the big time. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, but “the big one” can also be a newsman’s white whale, consuming a life and spirit as completely as any other unattainable desire. In time, if the reporter is lucky, he or she will grow to appreciate the smaller more balanced stories, the happy endings and the reports that merely herald the news: “all’s well.” As for me, fate would open up opportunities elsewhere in the world, in my case the hunt for oil. But my craft of writing never left me nor did my instinct for the scent of "the big one.” In calling attention to these three volumes in this post, I’m reminded that in their way, each book has the aroma of "the big one”. When I was coming up, there were no bigger stories than President Kennedy’s assassination, the Vietnam War, and the tangled knot of the Middle East wars and the global oil business. Even after I left the newsroom, it seems I still had the scent of "the big one" in mind as I went about the business of real life, and which I related in a series of diaries, letters and narratives. Now these decades later, I realize that my big story would be a life lived in harmony with my family and colleagues, and fulfilling experiences in the rough and tumble of the real world. As a writer, though I may not have scored "the big one” as I had hoped as a young reporter, I still crafted a few books I’m happy to share:
NewsWalker – A Story for Sweeney (ISBN 1-928928-03-X) A narrative of my years in the newspaper business, where my obsession to learn the story behind the news was rewarded over and over, but denied when I tried to unravel JFK’s murder. Still my reporting did uncover a fuller context of the ethnic and tribal nature of the political world Kennedy came from and that sustained him, and which created a “mob justice” motive for his murder that is still not fully understood by the American mainstream. (Vol. 1 in the NewsWalker Series published by RavensYard)
Blue Dragon – Reckoning in the South China Sea (ISBN 1-928928-05-6) – A narrative of Mobil Oil’s efforts from 1990-94 to return to oil exploration offshore Vietnam after the end of the embargo, and an insight into how actions are taken in DC for their political effects at home with little understanding of how destructive those actions can be abroad. (Vol. 3 in the NewsWalker Series published by RavensYard)
Just Business Just War (ISBN 1-928928-11-0) – A behind-the-scenes look at the competitive global oil industry and how the US’s inability to come to grips with its energy appetites in today’s global marketplace reshaped the American oil industry, and created the conditions where war was necessary to protect American peace and security. (Vol. 5 in the NewsWalker Series published by RavensYard)
Comments