Results tagged “davidbloom”

Yesterday, the new ABC News co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were injured by shrapnel while traveling on an Iraqi road. The shrapnel came from a roadside bomb, and Woodruff and Vogt had been standing on an Iraqi vehicle when a roadside bomb went off; the two suffered head injuries. They are in serious but stable condition and were transferred to a military hospital in Germany overnight.

Gothamist saw funeral mourners starting to gather outside of St. Patrick's Cathedral today, to remember David Bloom. We were surprised that the police were setting up barricades, as David Bloom, while a popular journalist, was not the most famous. But, as parts of his funeral was covered on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, it's clear that he symbolizes something bigger than just journalism: a passion for his work, rapport with the audience, the public's desire to connect with an event...

There have been questions about whether reporters' deaths are getting too much attention, rather than focusing on the soldiers. Gothamist understands that point, it's important to focus on the men and women doing the job, but if you have watched or read a certain journalist on a regular basis, for many years, inevitably, you develop a relationship with him/her. And that's the case with David Bloom, whether we watched him report from the White House or rode toy cars on Weekend Today, we felt like we knew him. And that's why it seems, just seems, to cut harder than hearing about a soldier die.

Gothamist was discussing the sad news of David Bloom's death. We wondered about the pulmonary embolism, whether or not it could have happened while in the Middle East or here in New York. The Washington Post says that Bloom's sleeping conditions could have prompted one.

In a time when media outlets scramble for anyone to talk about the topic du jour, it's a rare pleasure to hear someone who is eloquent and intelligent on the topic at hand. This was the case during a Weekend Today segment about Jesica Santillan, the girl whose first transplant operation was marred by transplant organs of the wrong blood type, suffered irreversible brain damage after the second transplant this past week, and then died yesterday. Dr. Arthur Caplan, the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, was interviewed by David Bloom, and Dr. Caplan was thoughtful. Too often, interviewers with ask questions that already contain the answers, questions that an opposing counsel would say are leading ("Did you feel very hurt and betrayed when you heard the news?" vs. "What was your reaction?"), an inevitability because the interviewees are on camera for the first time, hesitant and halting, which was the case when Katie Couric interviewed Satillan's cousin, sponsor, and family lawyer. There usually is a trade-off between objective, informed commentary and passionate, rambling answers. Dr. Caplan's interview was enlightening because he addressed questions many of us wondered about, outlining the issues in the situtation (the organ donation system in place in the U.S. today, whether or not Satillan should have had the second transplant since most people never survive a second transplant, whether or not Jesica should have been taken off life support). He did feel that brain death was death, no second opinion would really be needed as the family wanted, however, doctors should have tried to avoid negotiating with the family in this manner, and let the family grieve as they saw fit. Read the Duke statement about Satillan's operations.