War Correspondants - Jon Snow
Jon Snow was born on 28th September 1947 to a well repsected family; he attended Ardingly College in W.Sussex, Pilgrim’s School as a choral scholar and St. Edward’s in Oxford. He left St. Edwards with only 1 A-level. However, to ‘redress the ravages of private education’ he completed 2 more A-levels at Scarborough Technical College. He went on to study law at the University of Liverpool, but never completed the degree as he was rusticated for his involved in a student protest. Jon Snow has covered dozens of wars and historical moments including African civil-conflicts, Cold War influence, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. He has interviewed various leaders of the western world such as Jimmy Carter and Margaret Thatcher as well as tyrannical dictators such as Colonel Gaddafi and Idi Amin. His main reasons for reporting wars appear to be 1)his demand to hold oppressors accountable, 2)his experience in the VSO, 3)his jealousy of journalists who covered the Vietnam War, 4)the curiosity of other cultures, 5)desire to be in the front row of historical events and change and 5)his childhood experience. Snow’s father had been too young to participate in WW1 and too old for WW2, and this left Jon feeling alienated as many school friends viewed their father’s as war heroes. Nevertheless, his grandfather, ‘General Tom’ had been in the army and received a knighthood twice. However, Jon knew the effects of war, he mentions in his book how physical injuries to veterans from Korea had frightened him as a boy. As a student he was extremely well travelled and in particular witnessed the downward spiral of Uganda under Idi Admin’s tyranny. Before becoming the main presenter on the Channel 4 News, Snow had been ITN’s Washington Correspondent (1983-1986), and their diplomatic editor (1986-1989). He has won several RTS Awards - two for reports from El Salvador, one for his reporting of the Kegworth air disaster, and two as "Presenter of the Year".
Jon Snow is quite an anti-establihment character, and although does attempt to remain impartial, he is unique in the sense that he coneys great attachment to many stories. He also seems to be a member of the traditional mould of war correspondants. On Page 304 (Shooting History) Snow quotes about the Lockerbie diaster:
"Satellite technology was providing us with raw pictures from the scene of the news quicker than we could get there to find out what was happening. I was in at the beginning of a new and potentially serious disinforming period in which I was expected to report events from the studio almost as if I were at the scene. It was to become ever harder for the viewer to tell whether we were actually witnessing what we were reporting, or were holed up in a video editing booth voicing over material fresh from the satellite.”
http://blog.fempages.org/wp/?p=99
Jon Snow, Shooting History (Harper Perennial 2005)
*Jon Snow’s most famous TV interview (unscripted) with Alastair Campbell concerning the ‘sexed up’ dossier on Iraqi WMD
*http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/06/week_4/27_campbell.html
posted by Ashley Smart at 6:36 AM
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