Anthony Shadid is Dead

My favorite reporter has passed away while working in Syria

Fluent in Arabic, with a gifted eye for detail and contextual writing, Mr. Shadid captured dimensions of life in the Middle East that many others failed to see. Those talents won him a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 2004 for his coverage of the American invasion of Iraq and the occupation that followed, and a second Pulitzer in 2010, also for his Iraq reporting, both of them for The Washington Post. He also was a finalist in 2007 for his coverage of Lebanon, and has been nominated by The Times for his coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings that have transfixed the Middle East for the past year.

The phrase “by Anthony Shadid” always guaranteed that I clicked a link on Facebook or Twitter. I’m looking forward to the release of his upcoming memoir on his Lebanese roots.

As an aside, Arab media is reporting the news using the phrasing: “New York Times Reporter Anthony Shadid Killed in Syria”. This is definitely (intentionally?) misleading. He died of illness.