Excellent article Mike. Thanks for sharing.


>Dan Barry is another reason not to give up on newspapers just yet. He is a reporter for the New York Times who now writes a regular feature called "This Land" in which he travels around the United States and writes about whatever catches his interest. What a great job for a journalist! Barry was for several years a metro reporter for the Times. I don't usually read the NY metro section of the paper so didn't notice his byline until the fall of 2005.
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>For reasons which remain unclear to me, he was sent to New Orleans to cover Hurricane Katrina in the immediate aftermath. Day in and day out, he filed pieces which were IMO stunning -- reminiscent of Edward R. Murrow's reporting from London during the Blitz and of the writing of Graham Greene. I gradually noticed that many of the best articles in the storm coverage were all written by the same guy, the guy with the dull name. Dan Barry is the rare journalist who is both a great reporter and a great writer. I was sure he was going to win the next year's Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting. He didn't. But I bet he does before he's through.
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>Here is his article from yesterday's paper to give you an idea. I love the last paragraph. It's a quiet paragraph but no less powerful for it.
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>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/us/05land.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=dan%20barry&st=nyt&scp=2