Cami McCormick

Back when I was first launching this blog, and trolling for inside information from my old Pentagon sources, I stumbled upon a bit of breaking news, that CBS news correspondent Cami McCormick had been seriously wounded in an IED attack in Afghanistan.  The attack claimed the life of Army Spc. Abraham S. Wheeler III, 22, of Columbia, S.C., whose name I didn’t learn until a few days later.

The posting, which was picked up by the Drudge Report, provoked what is known in the blogging world as a “flame war,” as readers responded with a debate over the role of journalists in a war zone.  Some of the comments were WAY over the line, personal attacks on Cami, by people who didn’t know her or her work.   And while I was familiar with Cami’s first-rate reporting from hearing her on CBS radio, the truth is I didn’t know her either, even though we both worked at CNN in the 1990s (CNN is a big place.)

Some people assumed that because I was first to report Cami’s fate, I had some special relationship with her.  I did not.  I simply ran across the news the way beat reporters often do.   But since then, I have visited Cami in Walter Reed where I can report she is in good spirits and on the road to recovery.  (CBS’s insurance, by the way, is footing the bill, not the taxpayers.)

CBS news correspondent Kimberly Dozier, who I do count among my friends, was apparently more than a little upset with me for reporting the news before CBS.  The network wanted to wait until the families of the soldiers had been notified before making the news about its correspondent public.   They considered it a matter of respect.  And I think she felt some of the vitriol directed at Cami was due to the perception that I was focusing more on a journalist than the troops she was covering.

A debate about the degree news can be held in the Internet age will wait for another day.   But one thing is clear Kimberly knows Cami better than I do, and has a much better idea of the challenges she’s facing.   Kimberly’s “been there done that, got that t-shirt.” On Memorial Day 2007 Dozier and her CBS crew were covering a routine patrol in Baghdad when they were hit by a car bomb that left four people dead and Dozier with massive injuries to her legs and head.  She’s written a terrific book about it “Breathing the Fire”

Last weekend Kimberly Dozier ran the 10K part of the Marine Corps Marathon, for a second time. Last year, she said she did to prove something to herself.  This time she ran for Fisher House, which she calls, “One of those great wounded warrior charities that provides a place to stay for loved ones of the injured, and also runs ‘Hero Miles,’ where you can donate your air miles, which are then used to fly loved ones of the injured to Walter Reed or Landstuhl or wherever they need to go.”

Before you even think about leaving a hateful comment, Please, check out Kimberly Dozier’s thoughtful post.   She nails it better than I can.

Tags: Afghanistan, Cami McCormick, Embed, IED, Journalists