Sydney Hillel Schanberg (January 17, 1934 July 9, 2016) was an American
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
who was best known for his coverage of the war in
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
. He was the recipient of a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
, two
George Polk
George Polk (October 17, 1913 – May 1948) was an American journalist for CBS who was murdered during the Greek Civil War, in 1948.
World War II
During World War II, Polk enlisted with a Naval Construction Battalion. After the invasion of Guad ...
awards, two
Overseas Press Club
The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...
awards, and the
Sigma Delta Chi
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...
prize for distinguished journalism. Schanberg was portrayed by
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor. Waterston is known for his work in theater, television and, film. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, and has receive ...
in the 1984 film ''
The Killing Fields
A killing field is a concept in military science.
Killing field may also refer to:
* Killing Fields, a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of ...
'' based on the experiences of Schanberg and the Cambodian journalist
Dith Pran
Dith Pran ( km, ឌិត ប្រន; 23 September 1942 – 30 March 2008) was a Cambodian photojournalist. He was a refugee and survivor of the Cambodian genocide and the subject of the film '' The Killing Fields'' (1984).
Early life
D ...
in Cambodia.
Early life and career
Sydney Schanberg was born to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
Clinton,
, the son of Freda (Feinberg) and Louis Schanberg, a grocery store owner.
He studied at
Clinton High School in 1951 before receiving a B.A. in Government from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1955. After initially enrolling at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
, he requested to be moved up the draft list and undertook basic military training at
Fort Hood
Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. Named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about from each, within the U.S. state of Texas. The post is the headquarter ...
in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
.
Schanberg joined ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' as a journalist in 1959. He spent much of the early 1970s in Southeast Asia as a correspondent for the ''Times''. For his reporting, he won the
George Polk Award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...
for excellence in journalism twice, in 1971 and 1974. In 1971, he wrote about the Pakistani genocide in then-East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
) as
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
bureau chief (1969–1973). Upon becoming Southeast Asia correspondent (1973–1975), he covered the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
.
Following years of combat, Schanberg wrote in ''The New York Times'' about the departure of the Americans and the coming regime change, writing about the Cambodians that "it is difficult to imagine how their lives could be anything but better with the Americans gone." A dispatch he wrote on April 13, 1975, written from
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
, ran with the headline "Indochina without Americans: for most, a better life."
Writing about his experiences following the
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...
takeover, Schanberg acknowledged that "I watched many Cambodian friends being herded out of Phnom Penh. Most of them I never saw again. All of us felt like betrayers, like people who were protected and didn't do enough to save our friends. We felt shame. We still do.", and utterly condemned the "maniacal Khmer Rouge guerrillas". He was one of the few American journalists to remain behind in Phnom Penh after the city fell. He and his assistant were threatened with death, and took sanctuary in the French embassy. Two weeks later, he left by truck for
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
.
Later life
Schanberg won the 1976
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
for
International Reporting for his Cambodia coverage. The citation reads, "For his coverage of the Communist takeover in Cambodia, carried out at great risk when he elected to stay at his post after the fall of Phnom Penh." His 1980 book ''The Death and Life of Dith Pran'' was about the struggle for survival of his colleague
Dith Pran
Dith Pran ( km, ឌិត ប្រន; 23 September 1942 – 30 March 2008) was a Cambodian photojournalist. He was a refugee and survivor of the Cambodian genocide and the subject of the film '' The Killing Fields'' (1984).
Early life
D ...
in the Khmer Rouge regime. The book inspired the 1984 film ''
The Killing Fields
A killing field is a concept in military science.
Killing field may also refer to:
* Killing Fields, a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of ...
'' in which Schanberg was played by
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor. Waterston is known for his work in theater, television and, film. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, and has receive ...
.
[
Schanberg served as the ''Times'' metropolitan editor (1977–1980) before joining the editorial pages as a columnist specializing in the ]New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...
in 1981. Although he was initially considered to be a leading candidate to succeed executive editor A.M. Rosenthal
Abraham Michael Rosenthal (May 2, 1922 – May 10, 2006) was an American journalist who served as ''The New York Times'' executive editor from 1977 to 1986. Previously he was the newspaper's city editor and managing editor. Near the end of his tenu ...
after receiving his Pulitzer Prize, their relationship was soon strained by Schanberg's innovative approach to local coverage (including a proposed 1977 series on upper middle class
In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term ''lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class strat ...
gay professionals that was ultimately suppressed by Rosenthal) and increasingly vitriolic critiques of New York's real estate industry. In September 1985, Schanberg's column was cancelled by Rosenthal after he criticized the paper's coverage of the Westway highway development. He refused a proposed writer-at-large post at ''The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
'' and resigned from the ''Times''.
Between 1986 and 1995, he was an associate editor and columnist for ''Newsday
''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
''. He covered the United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs hearings and became engrossed in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue concerns the fate of United States servicemen who were reported as missing in action (MIA) during the Vietnam War and associated theaters of operation in Southeast Asia. The term also refers to issues related to the tre ...
; writing for ''Penthouse
Penthouse most often refers to:
*Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building
*Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine
*Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...
'', ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' and ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'', Schanberg became a leading advocate of the "live prisoners left behind" theory in that matter. He published many articles on the subject and outlined reasons why no POWs were ever found, alleging that government officials never seriously investigated reports of live POWs due to fear of public outrage, and to save embarrassment and prevent damage to their reputations and careers. He further said in his articles that the Vietnamese never admitted to holding prisoners in order to be accepted by the international community, and that they'd initially tried to ransom them for reparations once the war ended.
On September 14, 1987, Schanberg published a ''Newsday'' editorial entitled "Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
-Public-Relations Master", in which he wrote, sarcastically, "The part I like best about Donald Trump is his deep and abiding concern for the homeless and the poor". He called Trump a "public-relations virtuoso", described an ongoing feud with then- New York City Mayor Ed Koch
Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was may ...
(who Trump called a "moron" and a "jerk"), provided numerous instances of Trump's claims of superior intellect ("It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles. I think I know most of it anyway"), ultimately warning: "He can deny all he wants any designs on the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
, but Trump has the kind of instincts that are perfect for the age we live in - the age of stage smoke and magic mirrors and imagery. In short, he sees the kind of men we admire and elect these days, and he naturally asks: 'Why not me?' " Schanberg ended the piece with, "In an age where smoke is everything, Donald Trump can blow it with the best of them".
In 1992, Schanberg received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy
Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) was an American Presbyterianism, Presbyterian Minister (Christianity), minister, journalist, Editing, newspaper editor, and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. Followin ...
Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws
A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...
degree from Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthr ...
. After leaving ''Newsday'', he worked as head of investigations for APBNews.com, shepherding the fledgling digital publication to a 1999 Investigative Reporters and Editors
Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving the quality of journalism, in particular investigative journalism. Formed in 1975, it presents the IRE Awards and holds conferences and training ...
award. He settled in exurban New Paltz, New York
New Paltz () is an incorporated U.S. town in Ulster County, New York. The population was 14,003 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The town is located in the southeastern part of the county and is south of Kingston. New Paltz contains a village, also wit ...
after serving as the inaugural James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professor of Journalism at the State University of New York at New Paltz
The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an a ...
in 2001.
In 2006, Schanberg resigned from ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' (where he had served as a staff writer and ''Press Clips'' columnist since 2002) in protest over the editorial, political and personnel changes made by the new publisher, New Times Media
Village Voice Media or VVM is a newspaper company. It began in 1970 as a weekly alternative newspaper in Phoenix. The company, founded by Michael Lacey (editor) and Jim Larkin (publisher), was then known as New Times Inc. (NTI) and the publicati ...
.
In the July 1, 2010, issue of ''American Conservative
Conservatism in the United States is a political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conser ...
'', Schanberg wrote an article about his struggle to advance his position that the United States government left behind hundreds of POWs being held by North Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. He died on July 9, 2016, after suffering a heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
in the previous week.
Bibliography
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References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schanberg, Sydney
1934 births
2016 deaths
People from Clinton, Massachusetts
American male journalists
Journalists from Massachusetts
Writers from Massachusetts
Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award recipients
Harvard University alumni
The New York Times writers
George Polk Award recipients
Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting winners
Newsday people
American war correspondents
The Village Voice people
Jewish American writers