James Cameron
Richard West writes: The journalist James Cameron, who died on Saturday, aged 73, was often portrayed as the left- wing victim of right-wing newspaper prop- rietors. It is true that the magazine Picture Post refused to publish his article on South Korean atrocities. It is true that the News Chronicle folded while he worked there. But Picture Post was already a dying magazine, and the News Chronicle folded because of weak management. As Camer- on remarked at the time: 'This is the first recorded instance of the ship leaving the sinking rats.' Cameron could have gone on to work for any Fleet Street newspaper but wisely, perhaps, he decided to alter his pace and became a television reporter. He started a third career, perhaps his greatest, recalling the stories of 20 or 30 years earlier. Contrary to the accepted wisdom of Fleet Street, Cameron's stories im- proved with age, which is why his auto- biography, Points of Departure, stays so readable. He was too sceptical to be a crusader. He took risks, like the Imjon landing in South Korea, but he despised heroics. He was also prepared to accept long spells of boredom and loneliness, as he showed in a memorable film of himself stretched out on a bed in a cheap Indian hotel, with a fan overhead and a bottle to hand. Some of his finest reports came from places like Tanzania and Albania, where there was little happening and less to enjoy. He scorned the demand for objec- tivity, was fun to read just because he always injected into his articles his own very good jokes and bizarre prejudices. He felt very strongly against the atomic bomb but did not make the concomitant error of saying that Communist powers were peace- loving. His real enthusiasms were not for ideologies but for the countries he liked, above all India and Israel. His love affair with India took corporeal shape in his marriage with Moni, whose care and devo- tion did a lot to relieve the pain of his last illness. His affection for Israel survived its unpopularity with the trendy Left. His wonderful television film about Venice expressed Cameron's very Scottish mixture of cynicism and romance. For a man who spent much of his life covering wars, on a diet of whisky and cigarettes, James Cameron reached a good age. Neverthe- less, the news of his death has saddened many people round the world.
Previous page
