Tripod Home | New | TriTeca | Work/Money | Politics/Community | Living/Travel | Planet T | Daily ScoopPOLITICS & COMMUNITY
Jim Bartlett
interviewed by Emma Taylor on 26 February, 1996
"I speak their language -- grunt -- and we have that bond that exists between soldiers all over the world."
Jim Bartlett is an Internet-based reporter who created Berzerkistan, a web site covering the actions of the Bosnian War.
Tripod: How long have you been out there?
JM: I first went to Zagreb and Croatia/Bosnia in the summer of 1992. Since then I have been back and fourth five times, accumulating a year and two months in country.
Tripod: When and why did you make the decision to cover the war exclusively for the Internet?
JM: This whole project started when I returned from Chechneya and went to LA last year. I met up with "America's Most Wanted" creator Mike Linder and we started hatching an idea for a new reality show with it's own Internet site attached. Getting things rolling in Hollywood in a timely fashion can be difficult, so after doing the rounds we decided to launch the Internet part of the project on our own. Build it and they will come...
Tripod: You used to be a soldier, right? How does that affect the way you cover this war? Are there times when you are torn between being a journalist and being a soldier? How do you deal with that?
JM: Yes, I was in the VA guard for three years and was a Combat Engineer. We dealt with mines and demolitions and field fortifications, that kind of stuff. The way it effects my coverage is that I know what I'm looking at -- I have also been a dedicated student of military history and science since I can remember. I can see a situation in not only the here and now and what's happening at this given moment, but what direction it might go, and how it developed.
My background also makes me a lot more cautious and tuned into the many unseen dangers on a modern battlefield -- the little danger signs that other people miss because they don't know what to look for. As far as being torn between whether to fight or not, I fall back on my spiritual beliefs -- If it is not necessary to kill then you don't. It's a very Native American outlook on things.
I don't even kill bugs if I don't have to. The way I see it, every reckless disregard for another life stacks up and comes back to haunt you. Soldiers are very superstitious! On the other hand, if I can put my medical skills to use I will, even if it costs me the shot. Doing that endears you to people in a way a photo can't, and as far as defending myself goes, I would do so without hesitation or mercy. I figure that if someone brings trouble my way than that's their karma and not mine.
Tripod: You first arrived in Bosnia with no experience in journalism -- where did you begin? Did you have to win the approval of more seasoned reporters?
JM: I hung around. Pure and simple, and kept my eyes and ears open. When I could tag along I did, and learned as I went. Up till that point, my whole background in journalism consisted of Tim Page's biography and Mike Herr's book "Dispatches."
As far as other correspondents go, there is definitely a pecking order -- but that is perhaps to harsh. I guess after a while people get used to you being around, and you make friends just as you would anywhere.
Tripod: What's the atmosphere like among the journalists out there? Camaraderie or competition?
JM: Right now in Bosnia the atmosphere is boredom, but give that time. As far as camaraderie or competition goes, you get both. Actually, when I first arrived in the zone I thought there would be that military brand of camaraderie that develops with grunts, but it wasn't that way. Certainly you develop that with your friends and that's one of the things I love about the work, but there are so many people in the business and so many coming and going that camaraderie in the traditional sense is, well ... different. As far as competition -- the harshest in the world!
Tripod: What do the soldiers think of you?
JM: I speak their language -- grunt -- and we have that bond that exists between soldiers all over the world.
Tripod: The stories in your journals are very personal. Why don't we see that elsewhere in the media? Have Americans become tired of reading about individual lives out there, or have the journalists tired of seeking out these stories?
JM: Well, the business dictates the style you have to use. If you're working for the wires, then you have to produce wire copy; if you write features for a magazine, you will write features. There is a lot of copy out there about individual lives, but it's buried in the features section. Take Dave Hackworth for example. He is as close to Ernie Pyle's style as you can get in Newsweek, and he's a soldier's soldier to boot.
Tripod: You call the people you meet there your friends, and you say that you do this for them as well as for yourself. Do you find that some reporters look down on this almost idealistic attitude?
JM: Let me make one thing clear -- they ain't all my friends, and there have been more than a few out there that would get their asses kicked if I could get away with it! The rare gems of people that you meet that make 75% of hell that you deal with worth it, are the ones that keep you going. As far as the press goes, I don't think many of them know what goes on with me. Others have seen so much of this all over the world that they are understandably a little jaded.
Tripod: Are you interested in covering the higher politics of the situation too, or do you prefer to tell the story from the ground?
JM: Ground, ground, ground!! Nothing worse than waiting around for some muckety muck to come out and deliver some pre-packaged nugget of wisdom to the media.
Tripod: I'm curious about the war crimes trial. What kind of strains are there, simultaneously negotiating with a leader and trying him for war crimes?
JM: Well, it's more than just one leader here and there. It's cousin Joe Bob and Uncle Festus getting grabbed and sent to the Hague that will stir people up as well. As far as Milosivic goes, he's a powerful man, and right now we need that power to work for us. But time will tell, and if you take the example of Jochiem Pieper (Cdr., SS unit responsible for the malmady massacre in 1944), there's all kinds of justice in this world.
Tripod: Have you offended anyone by calling your site "Beserkistan"? Where did that name come from?
JM: Only one or two. I was in Chechneya and looking at a newspaper -- OK, looking at the pictures -- and there was all this stuff going down in all kinds of places with "stan" on the end of them. I looked at my buddy and said something to the effect that they were all damn berserkistans. When I told Mike that little anecdote the name stuck.
Tripod: It seems that in a war zone such as Bosnia, a subculture of humor and entertainment evolves -- even in the most unbearable circumstances. Would you agree?
JM: Absolutly, if you don't develop a sort of dark humor to deal with the events around you, you will go crazy. In Sarajevo, for example, they would hold these little underground skits during the war. One of the best remembered was a hospital scene where they were triaging patients. "... bullet wound. Check. Shrapnel. Check. Burns. Check ... Burns!! We've got gas! Quick, cook something, brew some coffee!!" Dark humor to be sure, but it gets you through the day.
Tripod: How long will you stay there? Are you waiting for peace on the ground?
JM: In my heart I'll never leave. The Balkans are like a dose of the ... well, nevermind. There is a sort of peace. We're all waiting for it to fail again!
Tripod: And how long do you think that will be? Being up close, do you see unbridgeable gaps between what's on paper (the peace negotiations), and what will actually happen, on the ground?
JM: Like I said earlier, I'm a fairly well versed student of military science and international affairs. The one overwhelming lesson of the Balkans is, if things can go wrong then they probably will. I've quit trying to predict or forecast anything that goes down there.
Tripod: What is the lowest moment you've had there? And the highest?
JM: Good question. The two can be interchangeable in many ways.
For Jim Bartlett's columns and the latest Bosnian news, be sure to visit Beserkistan at: http://www.linder.com/berserk/berserk.html.
Map | Search | Help | Send Us Comments
