Veronica Guerin

Of all the movies, books, television shows, and stories about journalists that have been "in the news" in the recent years, I think the story of Veronica Guerin is one that all show know about.

In the last couple of years there has been scandle upon scandle at different papers, magazines, and television stations. Take for example Derek Lowe cheating on his wife with a reporter for the local Fox affiliate station. The story of Stephen Glass and his made-up stories at The New Republic, Jason Blair and his "travel" that never happened for the New York Times.

In the cases of Blair and Glass, it sickens me that their have been books and movies made about the stories of the these two journalists with no morals and dedication to the craft of journalism. They got caught up in the whirlwind of writing for two major publications and saw absolutely nothing wrong with fabricating stories out of thin air.

Enough about the bad, back to the focus of this peice. Veronica Guerin, for those who don't know, was a reporter in Ireland and uncovered the "drug scandle" that affected thousands of people. Through her tireless efforts many were sent to jail and laws were changed allowing the Irish government to seize property and freeze assetts of suspected drug lords.

She paid the price dearly to uncover the truth about drugs in Ireland, she was brutally murdered, shot multilple times by a henchman. However, through her spirit journalism and the code of ethics and morals, if they still exist, lives on.

Since her death in 1996 over 196 journalists have been killed. 196 people have been taken from the world of journalism, reporting the news to the people, and sent to a better place.

I hope that this story will cause some of you to learn the story of Veronica Guerin and her plight to fight what was wrong with the world. It's a movie that should inspire us all to do more in life and not think about ourselves, but the people around us and how they are affected.

In a world of sensationalized journalism where NBC, CBS, FOX, etc, etc rush to predict who has won the presidency (or won the popular vote back in 2000) it is refreshing to hear of a stpursuit of the story. She never backed down and I hope that in the future when I finally break through that I will have half of the heart and dedication that she had.