As many journalists, as well as those who follow the news mourn the death of NPR photojournalist David Gilkey, a former boss of his with ties to Rochester is remembering him as well.
David Hunke is a former publisher of the Democrat & Chronicle and also a former publisher of USA Today.
Another of his previous roles as newspaper executive was when was publisher of the Detroit Free Press for several years, and David Gilkey was one of his photojournalists.
Hunke says he was very sad and upset to learn that his former employee lost his life along with his translator in Afghanistan. They died in an ambush while on assignment covering the conflict there.
Hunke says the news took him back to a conversation he had with Gilkey when he told his bosses he wanted to embed with members of a Michigan National Guard unit in Iraq, because he felt that was the only way he could really bring the needed depth to the story.
“He convinced us that he knew how to do this safely and he also convinced us there was no other way to tell a story but to be that immersed and that involved in it, and I think that is so pertinent how terrible it is how David has lost his life in pursuit of the story,” Hunke told WXXI News.
The former publisher says Gilkey lost his life standing up for the importance of a free and independent press, and he imagines the journalist would want to make sure the story he was working on still got covered.
“Who’s going to pick up David’s story and tell it now and David would be the first person to be looking around the room going, ‘who’s going to do this now, it has to be told, the story has to be told.’ “
Hunke believes one reason that Gilkey's images were so effective is because he had a lot of respect for the people he was covering, and wanted the attention to be focused on their story, not on his involvement in reporting it.
