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| "The Shot" by Joe Rosenthal |
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| That's Joe Rosenthal (left) taking posed pictures atop Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945. |
SUNDAY REVIEW—Looking back at my first weeks as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, a Hearst daily
based downtown on Third, just south of Mission Street, I so often kick myself
for stories I missed covering rather than for mistakes made on the ones I had
written. For example, today is February
23 and on the same day back in the early 70s, the city room was abuzz with
keeping up with covering President Nixon’s trip to China to meet with then
Premier Chou en Lai. Being on the
business page, I had just wrapped up filing the day’s story on stock market
results from Wall Street. Maybe I was
the only one that noticed one of our Examiner
photographers had just snapped off a few shots another staff
photographer. Curious as to what was
going on I elbowed my immediate editor. “What day is it?” Elmer asked.
“Wednesday.”
“The date?” he asked.
“Feb. 23rd, why?”
“Every couple of years on Feb. 23 we run a story on Joe
Rosenthal.”
“Who?”
Elmer gave me a look only a seasoned newspaper editor
could give a rookie reporter fresh out of San Diego State.
I had to find out myself as Elmer found something else to
do that was away from my presence.
What I learned that Joe Rosenthal was a famous World War
II photographer, who on February 23, 1945 snapped one of the more famous images
ever photographed.
He took the shot of Easy Company raising the stars &
stripes atop Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
I remember making small talk with Joe over the coffee
machine in the City Room. But did I take
him to lunch and find out more about him?
Nope, but in recalling those days, the world wasn’t about Joe
Rosenthal. He didn’t encourage talk
about what he did way back in 1945, especially to a green reporter with no
instincts for a good story if it bit him on the ass.
He
was more humble and talented than he was ever famous.
More Media:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/02/23/iwo_jima_flag_raising_photo.html
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