A big sports fan with a love for writing, Steve Fainaru graduated from the University of Missouri. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner for international reporting. After he was done with school, he covered sports for the San Jose Mercury News. He also covered the Boston Red Sox for the Boston Globe, as well as, Wall Street and Latin America.
Fainaru then went back to school to achieve an International Affairs degree because he wanted to be a foreign correspondent. Fainaru wrote for sports again when he worked for the Washington Post.
In 2003, when the war started, Fainaru wrote his first war story. Fainaru tells his intense story about arriving in Iraq. His introduction of coming into Iraq was the epitome of how the way of life usually was in Iraq (security guns, armed men, etc). Right when Fainaru walked into the airport, there were no people except armed men.
Steve Fainaru explains that he is a man who loves to write and is extremely interested in covering important stories. He says that going into journalism, back in the day, was such a clear dream and vision. He was into reporting the news because of the depth of interest. There were also many job openings; but, most importantly, Fainaru wanted to write.
Now, the journalism industry has greatly changed. There is a great decrease in the amount of job openings, the newspaper industry is dying, and important stories are not being told.
Fainaru signed to be in Iraq for a year. He definitely experienced situations that people are normally not involved in. For instance, a man he wanted to interview was kidnapped. Another example was when he saw a hostage video with a man in the “usual hostage” pose saying they wanted the U.S. out of Iraq. During this time, Fainaru’s personal life was not the easiest of times either. H was going through a divorce and his father was dying. Therefore, Fainaru was not in the decision to go back to Iraq because of these personal situations. He stated, “Personal decisions are a part of what you do. It affects your life.”
Fainaru gives a genuine answer of not missing Iraq. On the other hand, he describes the addiction of people wanting relationships where others would want to die for you. People want meaningful friendships and that is why it is so addicting to join groups or go to places where one can easily access this.
