Award-winning Georgia war correspondent and son off to Iraq and Afghanistan
July 7, 2008 at 3:35 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsMike Boettcher, a Peabody Award-winning journalist who’s covered conflicts in the Middle East and Africa for NBC News and CNN, is launching a Web venture called NoIgnoring. He’s channeling the ghost of Ernie Pyle and venturing off to Iraq and Afghanistan to tell soldiers’ stories from the warzones.
“We have 200,000 U.S. men and women in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. The U.S. has seemed to have forgotten about them. We talk about the war, but we’ve forgotten the soldiers and what they are doing,” Boettcher said.
He’s not traveling solo, either — Boettcher’s 21-year-old son Carlos will join him. The two plan to embed with the Fourth Infantry Division and mimic their tours — 15 months in the field, 18 days at home — and post blogs and video reports to the site. The reports will be free for television stations to post on their websites, Boettcher says.
According to various blog posts about the venture, father and son left in late May or June. Interesting fact: Boettcher filed one of the first reports for Ted Turner’s 24-hour news network.
Full disclosure: Boettcher is a friend of mine, but I haven’t spoken with him in months. I googled his name for kicks the other day and came across this news. I wish him and Carlos all the best and look forward to their work.
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July 7th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
We haven’t forgotten them. They are no longer as useful for influencing the election, so the press seem to have quit talking about them.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
What they’re doing is pretty remarkable. May they both be safe.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Note for Thomas Wheatley
I am working with Mike on this project - get me your contact info and I will pass it on to him. Carlos and Mike will deploy in the next few days.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Good luck to Carlos and Mike and we sincerely hope you can give us the skinny on what you see and return home safely.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Steve,
Please send me an e-mail at thomas.wheatley@cln.com or give me a call at (404) 614-1224.