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Television journalist and newscaster Carol Barnes died of a stroke last March 8 in Brighton, England. She was 63.
At a time when looks are given much weight in the selection of female newscasters, Barnes stood out to prove she was far more than that. A combination of intelligence, passion, and glamour, Barnes started as a scriptwriter for Independent Radio News in the early 70’s and moved to BBC Radio 4’s The World at One in 1974.
In 1975, she became a reporter for ITN and anchored, among others, its flagship news program News at Ten. She also became part of the morning newsmagazine program Channel 4 Daily produced by ITN and aired over the British TV station Channel 4.
Barnes covered varied assignments, from Ayatollah Khomeini’s exile in France in 1979, Brixton riot in 1981, down to the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997. Her stint in ITN included her anchoring of the financial program Simply Money and current affairs Seven Days.
Barnes reportedly suffered from depression when her daughter by former partner and fellow journalist Denis MacShane, died in an accident in 2004. This led her to elude television work for a while. During this time, however, she worked as a columnist for the magazine Absolute London. Barnes also spearheaded a number of conferences which included a summit on age discrimination.
Donald Mcnicoll, a Scottish journalist who worked for the Associated Press (AP) for 33 years, died on Feb.25. He was 93.
McNicoll’s 72-year career in journalism was primarily devoted to AP, first as the news agency’s London desk head and later as its world desk head. While in AP, he wrote the AP Manual News Agencies and the Law, a guidebook discussing libel, and introduced AP-Dow Jones Financial News Service. McNicoll reported Winston Churchill’s death and viewed it as his most remarkable work for the news agency.
Known for being a strict and meticulous editor, McNicoll trained his staff with the right journalistic skills, enabling them to be competitive with rival news organizations Reuters and United Press International. When computers were first introduced in the newsroom in the early 1970s, McNicoll took part in the negotiations after some employees contested the change.
McNicoll was elected head of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in AP for 20 years and chaired Fleet Street News Agencies’ branch of NUJ.
McNicoll retired from AP in 1979, after which he continued to write, covering the environment and forestry beats. He also taught at the London School of Journalism for almost 30 years, serving as its deputy head from 1965-75.
John Roderick, one of the most well-known foreign correspondents in Associated Press (AP), died on March 11 at the age of 93.
He joined the news agency’s Portland bureau in 1937 and later its Washington office in 1942. Roderick’s most notable report was his coverage of the civil war in China in 1946.
The relationship he established with communist leaders when he was covering the renewed civil war between the communists and the nationalists after World War II enabled Roderick to help pave the way for China’s “reopening” to Washington after years of hostility, which eventually led to then President Richard Nixon’s visit to China.
His fascination with China led him to write the book Covering China, which detailed the many conversations and encounters he had with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other top Chinese communist leaders.
Roderick also reported in 1948 the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte, a United Nations mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the defeat of the French Union Forces in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam in 1954.
Roderick was named AP special correspondent in 1977 and received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, an award given by the Japanese government, in 1985. |
