In his January State of the Union address, President Bush uttered three words that would come to define the 21st century's War on Terror. Iran, Iraq and North Korea, he said, formed an "axis of evil." Though he has been accused of heightening world tensions with his choice of phrase, events have since proven that trio of nations are at the center of our concerns.
It's true that journalists look after their own, and that they probably give outsized coverage to the deaths of colleagues. But it wasn't only journalists who were sickened beyond words by the decapitation — on video — of Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal. While it never aired on FOX News Channel — for reasons of taste — the visual evidence of Al Qaeda's inhuman brutality circulated through newsrooms around the world. Pearl's horrible death reminded us that journalists could no longer work behind the patina of separation from the news we covered; we were targets, too.
We were certain — and assured by profilers — that the person who was shooting people in the Washington Beltway area was a single white male who probably had a problem with women. It turned out to be two black men — or one man and a boy under his spell. And it made us wonder what was going on in the world.
News of the other extreme came from Pennsylvania, when a shift of coal miners in the state's vast mine system were trapped for 77 hours. As the time ticked by, hope dwindled. Then, with Geraldo Rivera right on the spot, they began to be winched up — alive and, aside from very hungry and thirsty, well.
John Moody serves as the Senior Vice President, News Editorial for FOX News. He is responsible for both the design and editorial direction of FOX News Channel and oversees all story content for FOX News.
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