Jim: The James Foley Story

1

I was in my office at work

and I got a call

from an international number.

I always an...

Through the last three years, when it was

an international call, I would answer it.

And it was a reporter in Dublin,

wanted a reaction for the story.

I said, "Reaction for what?"

And then they were really caught back

by that question obviously,

and they said "Uh, I'll call you back in

five minutes." And so then I went online

and saw the picture.

It's not the way you want to find out.

I never, ever imagined that it would

end in that fashion, right?

For days, that first week, I just would

constantly see that image and...

[sighs] It's been, uh...

It's been tough.

You go through those emotional swings and,

you know, why the hell did you go back,

you know that second time?

And then...

But I keep coming back

to the same answer.

Name the sports newspaper

that hit US newsstands in 1990.

- [buzzer buzzing]

- James.

- The National.

- It was.

[camera clicking]

[Man] Ladies and gentlemen, please

help me welcome, Mr. James Foley.

[audience applauding]

Thanks for that generous...

Overly generous introduction.

And I'm definitely not a hero or

noble or anything. I'm just, uh...

Trying to do my work and got

into a little bit of trouble.

[chanting]

I arrived in Benghazi in mid March,

and the night I arrived,

I heard nothing but bombs and gunfire.

[bombs exploding]

I wondered, "What's going on?"

Another journalist said,

"The bombs, that's gelatina,

that's how they fish."

Blow the fish up. "And the gunfire,

no, that's celebratory gunfire."

[rapid gunfire]

If Gadhafi comes to Benghazi,

are you guys prepared to fight?

[Diane] I think in some ways,

Libya was a turning point for Jim.

You know, I was starting to see his

trying to figure out

where he belonged in the world.

You know he tried the Teach for America, and then

in Chicago, he worked at the Cook County Jail.

He anguished over his teaching. He didn't

think he was a good enough teacher.

And he wanted to write and he loved

people and liked to interact,

tell people stories. So when Jim decided he

wanted to go into journalism from teaching,

at first we thought, "That would be good,

maybe that'll be a better fit, Jim."

But when he decided to do

conflict journalism...

[sighs] You know, that was

a whole different deal.

Well, he didn't exactly tell us.

[chuckles]

He graduated from Medill, and we said

"Jim, well, what're you gonna do?"

And he said, "Well, I'm working on it."

So the next thing we knew, he was gonna go to

Iraq embedded with the Indiana National Guard.

Well, I guess I'm a conflict journalist at

this point, so that's how we found out.

[guns firing]

[Jim] It's an all out sprint, an

exhilarating and dangerous run for cover.

Got 'em.

When Jim started the journalism path, we

did have some heated discussions on...

views and the military and what not.

My views are a little bit more

conservative... [chuckles] than Jim's.

I would say a little bit more liberal.

But when he did his embed, I think,

is where we came closer together.

[Jim]

As soon as the shooting died down,

the platoon discovered

a body limp on the roof.

- Do they know who the guy is?

- Yes. These are the family members.

- [Jim] These are the family?

- Yeah.

[John Jr.] And he came back to my house

and he told me... He was like,

"Hey, John, I'm thinking

about going to Libya."

I'm like, "Jim, that's a horrible idea.

That is absolutely a horrible idea.

If you go over there...

no one's coming for you.

Why would you put your life in danger?

We're dropping bombs over there.

And God forbid if you go over there

and we accidentally kill you.

I mean, why? Why?

[chanting]

[Jim] Libya was very exciting as a journalist

because you had this chance to talk directly

to the people, to see

exactly what was going on.

[chanting indistinctly]

There was no U.S. soldiers anymore,

no organized army anymore,

telling you what you should

and shouldn't do.

But it was also extremely dangerous.

I was actually talking to one of my buddies,

Bostey about my brother Jim, and how, you know,

he's this journalist

and is like super crazy,

but like badass at the same time,

you know? I was like, yeah,

my brother's a badass, you know?

He's crazy, he's awesome.

I also was very naive myself. I didn't

know exactly what that would mean.

I didn't know he was actually gonna be

immersed in actual, like, crossfire.

[bombs exploding]

There's snipers in this building

about one kilometer away.

Tank. The groups

decided to go in.

Little bit of heavy fighting. Heavy casualties,

about 30 wounded, two dead out of the 40.

There's one video that always stands out to me.

It's like when he's standing in the square.

There does seem to be a strong sense

that they won't give up the fight

and that there are a force of

young fighting men,

although unorganized, there's

plenty of will to hold out here.

How does my guy know this stuff?

Like, how does Jim Foley, like...

He's just my meathead friend, you know?

And it was so foreign to me

in terms of an experience.

I'm like, well, how do

you get into Libya?

Oh, you're a freelancer, like who

wants this? Are you getting paid?

This is Jim Foley reporting from downtown

Benghazi, Revolutionary Square, Global Post.

Jim was there at the early stage of this

movement of there being more freelancers

in conflict areas.

The world has changed so much

in terms of digital publishing

and newspapers started to eliminate

things that they didn't see as essential.

International coverage dwindled

down to very little.

So we saw an opportunity to fill that void

and we needed to work with freelancers.

Freelancers decide to work together

just on the basis of this...

initial quick read chemistry.

I saw this new guy who I hadn't met before.

He looked friendly enough, so I said,

"Hey, what's up?" He said, "Oh, not

much, going to the front line."

And he'd heard a lot about Libya and the

fact that it was very cheap to work.

Rebels and protesters were eager to

show us their side of the story.

You know, they were driving us all over for

free. They were translating for us for free.

Many of us never really experienced the

luxury of journalism in its heyday.

What we do is journalism

on a shoestring budget.

So we've had to be a lot more resourceful

in a way and just more street savvy.

I think in a sense, the way we all got to know

each other was the Africa hotel in Benghazi.

It was the cheapest hotel and the

crappiest and we were all staying there.

I'd seen Jim talking to, you

know, a few other journalists

and he was just really

friendly with everybody.

It was unusual in a place like that. You know,

there's still an edge of competitiveness

in that environment, whereas Jim

was just like, "Yeah, whatever."

He gave off a really good first

impression and, you know,

it helps that he's like a super good-looking

guy, and I was just like, "Who is this guy?

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