From a story on politico.eu by Jamie Detmer headlined “The duty of a war reporter is to confront the uncomfortable”:

“A vulgar low Irishman, [who] sings a good song, drinks anyone’s brandy and water, and smokes as many cigars as a Jolly Good Fellow. He is just the sort of chap to get information, particularly out of youngsters.”

These were the words once used by a British soldier to describe celebrated 19th century correspondent William Russell. Famous for covering the Crimean War, Russell is often referred to as the first real “war correspondent” — a description he himself hated.

From a Times Insider column by Natalia Yermak headlined “A Cartoon Producer Turned War Reporter”:

Half an hour before midnight on March 28, the first artillery shell I ever heard screeched above the tiny roof that sheltered my colleagues and me. Our newly formed team had recently arrived in Huliaipole, a small eastern Ukrainian town, to report from the war’s front lines.

A little more than a month earlier, in prewar Kyiv, my job looked a lot different — and it did not involve air-raid warnings or howitzer shells.