Michael Kelly Killed in Iraq

[rollhead]

BOSTON (Reuters) - Michael Kelly, a former editor in chief of The Atlantic Monthly, was killed along with an American soldier in an accident involving their Humvee military vehicle in Iraq (news - web sites), magazine staff and U.S. officials said on Friday.


A staunch advocate of removing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) from power, Kelly, 46, was both the first American journalist and the first "embedded" journalist to die in the 2-week-old conflict.

The Atlantic Monthly said Kelly, who was embedded with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, died on Thursday night while on assignment for the magazine. He also penned a weekly syndicated column for The Washington Post.

"Some people knew Michael as one of this country's most gifted writers and editors. Many knew him as a fiery columnist. I knew him as an honest, funny, caring and even gentle human being," John Fox Sullivan, president and group publisher of Atlantic Media, said in a statement.


In an online obituary on Friday, The Post called Kelly a "caustic conservative who was merciless in his criticism of Bill Clinton (news - web sites) and Al Gore (news - web sites)." A strong supporter of President Bush (news - web sites)'s plan to oust the Iraqi president, Kelly chastised those who opposed the war.


"To march against the war is not to give peace a chance. It is to give tyranny a chance. It is to give the Iraqi nuke a chance. It is to give the next terrorist mass murder a chance. It is to march for the furtherance of evil instead of the vanquishing of evil," he wrote in a Feb. 19 column.

U.S. defense officials said the circumstances and cause of the accident were still under investigation, and they withheld the identity of the other person killed in the accident pending notification of family members.

Pentagon (news - web sites) chief spokeswoman Victoria Clarke lauded Kelly, noting that several journalists have died "trying to tell the very important story" of the U.S.- and British-led war.


"Mike was just a phenomenal journalist, with an enthusiasm for his work that was surpassed only by his passion for his family," Clarke said during a Pentagon briefing.


Kelly, who was until recently editor in chief at The Atlantic Monthly, covered the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) as a freelance correspondent for The New Republic, GQ, and The Boston Globe.


He won high praise for his reporting on how U.S. funds helped pay to rebuild lavish palaces of Kuwaiti leaders after the conflict. Based on his experiences in Iraq, he wrote the book "Martyrs' Day," which won the PEN-Martha Albrand award.


Kelly was the fourth journalist killed in action in the war. That is equal to the number of journalists killed in the Gulf War 12 years ago. Two additional journalists are still missing in Iraq.


BBC cameraman Kaveh Golestan was killed by a land mine as he climbed out of a car in the northern town of Kifri this week. The first victim, Australian cameraman Paul Moran, was killed in the north last month by a car bomb Kurdish officials blamed on the militant Islamic group Ansar al-Islam.


Terry Lloyd, a reporter with Britain's Independent Television News, was killed after coming under fire on the way to Basra in the south. Two of his crew are still missing.


Britain's Channel 4 TV reporter Gaby Rado was found dead at an Iraqi hotel, but his employers said the death appeared to be unconnected to combat.


Some 600 journalists are embedded with U.S. and British forces.

Prior to his arrival at The Atlantic Monthly, Kelly was the editor of National Journal from 1998 to 2000 and of The New Republic from 1996 to 1997. Kelly is survived by his wife, Madelyn, and two sons.

[Pete C]

Karma.

[bluenoter]

Originally posted by Pete C
Karma.

Indeed.

(BTW, that must be something like Sisco invoking Jah.)

[rollhead]

Cold.

[Pete C]

Originally posted by bluenoter
Indeed.

(BTW, that must be something like Sisco invoking Jah.)

Ja!

[Darryl G. Thomas]

You cats are tough!

Man I couldn't stand his obsessive Clinton bashing.

Shocking though.

At least he elevated himself above chicken-hawk status by risking his neck to cover the war. I wouldn't mind Richard Perle donning some fatigues and a helmet.

[Monte Smith]

Terrible. I admire these journalists that go over there--they are definitely risking their lives. Call it ego, call it sensationalism, I call it ballsy and good reporting.

RIP Michael Kelly. I didn't read his material frequently, but I understand that he was a good conservative voice at the Post.

[bluenoter]

Cold? Tough? Maybe, but not, I submit, as cold or tough as this:

"To march against the war is not to give peace a chance. It is to give tyranny a chance. It is to give the Iraqi nuke a chance. It is to give the next terrorist mass murder a chance. It is to march for the furtherance of evil instead of the vanquishing of evil," [Kelly] wrote in a Feb. 19 column.

[walto]

Originally posted by Darryl G. Thomas


Man I couldn't stand his obsessive Clinton bashing.

Shocking though.

At least he elevated himself above chicken-hawk status by risking his neck to cover the war.

You've expressed my sentiments to a tee, Darryl (and I'm no Clinton lover).

[Dr Dave]

Nobody deserves to die, although we all do anyway. I never had any respect for Kelly when he was alive, and I don't propose to start having any for him now that he's gone.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

bluenoter,

I know, I know. The guy's rhetoric could be vicious and stomach turning. He could make Robert Novack sound like Gandhi.

As usual, the level of ignorance on this board is astounding.

[moneyp]

Originally posted by lex luthor
As usual, the level of ignorance on this board is astounding.

Amen. I guess human life isn't as sacred as it's cracked up to be.

Michael Kelly was a friend of mine. And so, Darryl, Dr Dave, bluenoter and the rest, I would like to say a hearty fuck you anbd drop dead. The sooner the better. Assholes. Lois, if you would be so kind as to delete my account, I'd be gratreful.

Sorry, Darryl, not you, you objected to his views, which is fair. I should have said Pete.

As Darryl G. Thomas (the kid from Philly and Bawlmer) said:
>I wouldn't mind Richard Perle donning some fatigues and a helmet.<

And if we could get Cheney and Wolfewitz leading recon patrols as well, and maybe the CinC commanding a maneuver battalion!!

;-)

[Brian Olewnick]

Just read about this today in the NYT. Very sad. He did a fine job as editor of the Atlantic for several years.

Condolences, Lex. Hope you stick around.

[Captain Hate]

He was one of the best writers the New Republic had; and for all you Clinton lovers who were offended by his columns: Tough shit.

Just because one does not mourn another's death does not mean that one is disrespectful, it is more a sign of forthrightness, IMO. I do not mourn Kelly's death because I did not know him nor did I have any appreciation or respect for his twisted views. Consider, also, that he chose to go to Iraq, knowing full well what danger awaited him there. My sympathy goes out to his family and friends, but that's another matter.

[walto]

FWIW, I believe my post, following Darryl's explicitly, expressed shock and respect as well as my difference of opinion with Kelly's views and approach to journalism. Furthermore, I don't think such differences require one to have been a "Clinton lover," which I, most assuredly, am not and never was.

I mean, I don't agree with Olewnick about the sanguinity of Kelly's tenure at the Atlantic (or the NYer), but I don't want anything bad to happen to Brian either (and this difference doesn't necessarily make me some kind of a Kenny G. lover).

Let me be clear, Lex and mone and the other righteously indignant. I'm sorry Mr. Kelly has died. My heart goes out to his family (esp. his two little children). I give him tons of credit for reporting from a war zone. I generally didn't care much for his writing, though.

[Brian Olewnick]

I'm watching you carefully, Walt.

I don't keep track of who's at the helm for precisely which periods on any magazine, but I've been getting the Atlantic since the late 70's and some of the finest, most interesting articles therein, imho, have appeared in the last few years (not particularly political articles, either). I'm assuming Kelly was largely responsible for their inclusion. Plus, if he was at all responsible for the hiring of Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon to be the puzzle creators, that alone nets him a spot in my personal pantheon.

[moneyp]

Originally posted by walto
Let me be clear, Lex and mone and the other righteously indignant. I'm sorry Mr. Kelly has died. My heart goes out to his family (esp. his two little children). I give him tons of credit for reporting from a war zone. I generally didn't care much for his writing, though.

Walt: My criticism wasn't intended towards you or Darryl or Dr. Dave, but to Pete who described Kelly's death as "karma" and to Rita who doesn't think that's any less colder than expressing a political opinion. I like both posters, but I consider both statements to be absurd and moronic.

[Steve Reynolds]

if Peter Arnett died and we said Karma, what would happen then?

[walto]

I won't make any general predictions of behavior, but in my own case, I'd probably express shock and sorrow at his death as well as indicate that I thought he was something of a doofus.

[S.Eden]

Captain Hate says: He was one of the best writers the New Republic had; and for all you Clinton lovers who were offended by his columns: Tough shit.

I wasn't offended by Kelly's columns, but he demonstrated amazing(and so easily provable) ignorance in their inceptions during that time as to be pitifully laughable. At the time, he was third in the media nitwit running only to Geraldo and Chris Matthews. Any agreement he could've conceded from me was merely fruit of the poisonous tree. Whether he truly felt in his heart that which he wrote is another story(I'm a journalist too, we all gotta pay our bills).

Nonetheless, I really didn't care for Kelly and I'm not shocked that he died any more than I would've been were it any other news correspondent on the war front.

At one time I would've attributed guts to a journalist who would go out there in war and do their thing, but I don't believe that's the case anymore. This is the first real test of the post-media revolution journalism, and so far it's been just short of a complete disaster. Knowing only the safety net of our borders prior, our journalists have become so accustomed to being able to pry into, push through, loom over and say anything they damn well please that they don't realize that it doesn't work on the war front. You're not in the frat house anymore boys, straighten up, say it short and simple, then shut up and duck.

[Pete C]

I may be inviting more flak, but I feel that I must clarify my unfortunately hasty monosyllabic response.

I was by no means celebrating the man's death. By "karma," I did, however, mean to imply that to the extent that his words and actions were complicitous in the implementation of this war, he bears a certain moral responsibility for helping to create the conditions of his own death (obviously IMO, maybe cold). The war may be the baby of Bush & Co., but it was greatly enabled by the complicity of the American media (variously jingoistic or complacent), and by many worms in the Democratic party (including my 2 senators, Mrs. Clinton and my neighbor Chuck Schumer, whom I once respected).

It is the rare death that I would celebrate. For Saddam or Bin Laden I'll dance in the street. But I am greatly saddened by the deaths of our troops as well as Iraqui citizens, be they Saddam's victims our ours, and yes, of course, journalists.

Lex, I'm truly sorry for the death of your friend, as well as for any pain my comment may have caused. I hope you'll stick around. I've always appreciated your input.

[bluenoter]

Lex, I too offer my condolences on the death of your friend, and I too am sorry for any pain that my comments may have caused.

Are we supposed to be hypocritical? Is it not better that we express our honest feelings? Saying that one did not care for (or found "twisted") Kelly's expressed opinions is not the same as showing disrespect. A person'r death, sad though it is, does not (or should not) change one's view of his work. IMHO

[moneyp]

Originally posted by Chris A
Are we supposed to be hypocritical? Is it not better that we express our honest feelings? Saying that one did not care for (or found "twisted") Kelly's expressed opinions is not the same as showing disrespect. A person'r death, sad though it is, does not (or should not) change one's view of his work. IMHO

And I wasn't criticizing anyone's view of his work, and I don't think Lex was, either. If he was broad in his condemnation, you'll forgive him for not being precise the day he lost a friend of his.

I think Reynold's statement was quite apt. If this happened to Arnett and Monte said "good," you'd get right in line to blast him, Chris. THAT'S hypocritical.

Originally posted by mone peterson
If this happened to Arnett and Monte said "good," you'd get right in line to blast him, Chris. THAT'S hypocritical.

That presupposes two things:

• 1. That I am an admirer of Arnett.
  2. That I find the dead sacred.

Neither holds true for me.

Steve Reynolds' statement was conjecture.