In Memoriam: Michael Kelly
1957-2003
by P.J. Tigue

To choose to be a journalist is to opt for a life of self-examination. Each day, decisions must be made regarding which stories to cover, which angle to take and which facts to impart. Some might say you don't choose to be a journalist at all, that it's more of a calling than anything else — but that might be too dramatic an assessment. Still, to put your life on the line in the name of your job — as some 600 embedded journalists are now doing in the Iraq war — requires a greater dedication to your craft than many occupations would ask. On Friday, Michael Kelly, Washington Post columnist, Atlantic Monthly editor-at-large, husband, son and father of two young boys, died in his pursuit of the story when the Humvee he was riding in crashed in Iraq.

It seems that if anyone was meant to be a journalist, it was Michael Kelly. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1957 to two journalists — Thomas Kelly, a reporter, and Marguerite Kelly, who writes the syndicated column "Family Almanac" — Michael Kelly had the kind of resume journalists dream of. Stringer for the Boston Globe and GQ during the first Gulf War, reporter for The New York Times, writer and editor at The New Yorker, editor of the New Republic, editor of the National Journal, editor and then editor-at-large for The Atlantic and columnist for The Washington Post.

After covering the first Gulf War, Kelly won a National Magazine Award and an Overseas Press Club award for his articles, later writing a book, "Martyr's Day: Chronicle of a Small War" based on his reporting.

Known as a conservative columnist who was fired from The New Republic in 1997 for his constant Clinton bashing, Kelly also wrote the Atlantic's agenda column, "What Now?" which led off the magazine and set the tone for each issue. Always insightful, even if you disagreed with his conclusions (as I often did), he was one of the few writers — from either the right or the left — with the literary skill to make you forget how much you fundamentally disagreed with the crux of his argument. He possessed the rare ability to draw in his reader through the strength of his writing and convictions, all the while chipping away with the inherent logic of his argument. Many times (including the morning he died, when I read his column on the subway just before I got to work and heard of his death) I would finish "What Now?" satisfied by the intellectual rigor of the argument before I realized I'd just disagreed with everything I read. But I enjoyed the ride, nonetheless. Not many can claim such mastery over language and rhetoric.

His work as editor of The Atlantic cannot be overlooked. Though it's always been a strong magazine, he steered it through the political hysteria of the last two years by keeping the reporting solid, the viewpoints bipartisan and the writing among the best there is. He also oversaw a fundamental remaking of the magazine and a subsequent jump in circulation.

One of the difficult journalistic decisions Kelly likely had to make was whether to be embedded with the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division as it moved across Iraq, a decision that couldn't have been made any easier now that he has two young sons, 6 and 3. But he went anyway, sending back dispatches from the "spearhead" as it raced northward through Iraq. For everything else he was, Michael Kelly has now become something we all wish he never had to be: the first embedded American journalist to die with the US armed forces.

E-mail P.J. Tigue at pjtigue@yahoo.com.