{"id":981,"date":"2011-07-19T16:17:50","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T20:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=981"},"modified":"2011-07-19T16:17:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T20:17:50","slug":"padgett-puts-human-face-on-mexican-drug-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2011\/07\/19\/padgett-puts-human-face-on-mexican-drug-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Padgett Puts Human Face on Mexican Drug War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Steve Charles<\/em>\u2014For decades now,\u00a0TIME<\/em> Latin America Bureau Chief Tim Padgett \u201984 has been American journalism\u2019s voice crying out in the wilderness, warning us to pay attention to events in and the people of Latin America.<\/p>\n

As the president of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said in awarding him the Cabot Prize for his commitment to covering Latin America: \u201cTim has doggedly covered the region despite his own news organization’s reduction of space for Latin American coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when I saw the cover story for the July 11 issue of TIME<\/em> and read the headline\u2014\u201cThe War Next Door”<\/a>\u2014I should have known there was only one person TIME<\/em> would trust to get that story right.<\/p>\n

Even the subhead\u2014\u201cWhy Mexico\u2019s Drug Violence is America\u2019s Problem too\u201d\u2014 sounded much like the title of a talk Tim might give to students and faculty at Wabash.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Journalist and teacher\u2014Padgett took time to work with the writers and editors of The Bachelor during his 2009 visit to Wabash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Introducing the story, TIME<\/em>\u2019s Managing Editor Richard Stengel writes, \u201cAs Tim Padgett’s powerful story makes clear, Mexico is approaching a danger zone. Tim, who has been covering the Mexican drug wars for more than two decades, finds the present moment a perilous but hopeful one. ‘While the drug-cartel brutality is the worst we’ve ever seen,’ he says, ‘the clamor for the rule of law among victims’ groups is the loudest we’ve ever heard.'”<\/p>\n

For a man who has worked so hard to keep the people of Latin America in focus for an increasingly myopic U.S. audience, seeing the story on the cover was \u201ca shot in the arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted an essay that would put more of a human face on the drug war for a change, so it felt good to get these people\u2019s stories out this way,\u201d Tim responded after I wrote him to congratulate him on the piece.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of the Cabot Prize committee\u2019s praise not only for the stories he writes, but for the way he writes them: \u201cThe breadth of Padgett’s knowledge and the gracefulness of his prose make him a worthy model for new reporters and a reminder to editors that good coverage is based on deep commitment, long experience and frequent publication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not to mention a worthy exemplar of the power of a liberal arts education.<\/p>\n

Read the article here.
\n<\/a>Read an interview with Tim here<\/a>.<\/em>
\n Read more of his writing about Latin America here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Charles\u2014For decades now,\u00a0TIME Latin America Bureau Chief Tim Padgett \u201984 has been American journalism\u2019s voice crying out in the wilderness, warning us to pay attention to events in and the people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2011\/07\/tim.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}