Michael Kelly

It’s been ten years since Michael Kelly died as the first reporter to die in Iraq. I remember it vividly because I found out a couple hours before the news was reported and decided not to report it until his family and publication had a chance to do in their own way. His death was a terrible blow to his family and many colleagues who treasured him as a colleague and editor. But there’s simply no denying that, as a writer and columnist, he’d degenerated into something very much like a crank. Hectoring, shallow, nasty and fatuous.