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A selection of stories by Niemans about the Boston attacks
The explosions at the Boston Marathon made front-page news around the world, with Liberation in Paris, El Pais in Madrid, and The Jerusalem Post in Israel carrying coverage from 2013 Nieman Fellows Ludovic Blecher, Borja Echevarria, and Yaakov Katz, respectively. Katz’s story was headlined, “Boston will keep on running.” Another Nieman Fellow from this year’s class, Mary Beth Sheridan interviewed witnesses and covered the aftermath for The Washington Post. Brent McDonald, a videographer for The New York Times and a 2013 Nieman affiliate, produced “Witness to Chaos at the Boston Marathon,” a video that included an interview with a runner and several bystanders.
Dina Kraft, a 2012 Nieman Fellow who moved to the Boston area from Israel in 2011 after reporting there for The New York Times, wrote for Haaretz about her reaction to the slow flow of news in the minutes immediately after the explosions: “I quickly flick between radio stations. Where is the news? Where? … If this were Israel, I thought, the radio would practically turn itself on to announce a terror attack.”
Kevin Cullen, a 2003 Nieman Fellow and columnist for The Boston Globe, on Tuesday called out for answers and resolve. “We will get through this, but we will never be the same,” he wrote.
Susan Orlean, a 2004 Nieman Fellow and a former resident of Boston, reflected on intangibles that were destroyed by the explosions. “I’m sure rural marathons and small-city marathons are great, but the special thing about big-city marathons, like New York and Boston, is that they are occasions when the clashing and whirring of urban life quiets, and everyone stands together to see a bunch of people trying to do something very simple that is also very hard.”