The Iran Hostage Crisis and Journalism

...as it's called, happened almost 31 years ago. I mentioned it in a comment at SDA. Curious, I went looking for a bit more information about it, especially about the Canadian part in helping some of the American Embassy personnel escape to freedom. And viola! This was written while the hostage crisis was still underway. Although there are details in this Time Magazine article that I had previously not known, two things stand out. First is this:

"Anders [Ed: one of the rescued personnel] read a carefully prepared statement thanking reporters for keeping their sensitive secret for so long but saying of their colleagues still held captive: 'We must not and will not forget them.'"

What's that you say? The media actually put the safety of their fellow citizens above their rapacious need to get the scoop?? Well, I'll be darned. But wait.

"Privately, some Canadian officials said they were "extremely upset" that the story of the escape had been broken by Jean Pelletier, a Washington correspondent for Montreal's La Presse and son of Canada's ambassador to France. Like a number of newsmen, including correspondents and editors of TIME, Pelletier had long been aware that the six had been hidden in Tehran and had kept the secret. When Pelletier learned that the Americans were out of Tehran, he felt the news would quickly become public, and his newspaper decided to break the story. This destroyed a Canada-U.S. plan to hide the escapees in Europe until the fate of the 50 U.S. hostages still held in the embassy was resolved."

Oh well.