{"id":1069,"date":"2008-07-02T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2008-07-02T21:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2013-07-21T21:40:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T20:40:16","slug":"my-favourite-julian-manyon-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2008\/07\/my-favourite-julian-manyon-story\/","title":{"rendered":"My favourite Julian Manyon story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JulianE<\/span>veryone has one. I have one that’s repeatable. Julian was the reporter who got the hair-dryer treatment<\/a> from Robert Mugabe<\/strong> in Sharm el-Sheik.<\/p>\n

Julian can take it. He’s a former colleague and most decidedly not<\/em> a pack operator.<\/p>\n

Let’s just say he doesn’t rely on favours from competitors to get the job done.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

I hold him in huge – but sneaking – regard. Only Lara Logan<\/strong> ever really got the better of him, and that was in Afghanistan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But I digress. The favourite story was related to me in the cafe at the Rossiya<\/a> (not an attractive place) from the Russian bureau chief of a major news agency.<\/p>\n

It was a very sober evening, and my Russian friend (who did not hold Julian in sneaking – or any – regard) delivered it very much as a tale of his own defeat.<\/p>\n

The scene? A bunch of journos are trying desperately to get into Grozny in the mid-nineties.<\/p>\n

A Russian soldier – cigarette to lip, rifle slung – is holding them back at a checkpoint that marks the end of the Russian lines.<\/p>\n

JM – a strapping 6′-something – grabs his long-suffering translator, the 5′-something Oleg, and marches past the assembled press pack to confront the sentry.<\/p>\n

Julian inflates himself to his full apopleptic height, and barks in the man’s face something to the effect of – “I am Julian Manyon of ITN and I demand that you let me in to bear witness to the suffering of the people of Grozny.”<\/strong><\/em> All delivered in perfectly incomprehensible English.<\/p>\n

The soldier continues smoking, but doesn’t blink.<\/p>\n

Julian turns to his translator and orders – “Oleg! Translate that!”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Oleg shrugs and in resigned but impeccable Russian, he nods in Julian’s direction and says to the soldier: “This man is the biggest $%#* in the western media. If you let him in, someone might just shoot him.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The sentry purses his lips, raises the cigarette slowly to his mouth, and then beckons Julian. The barrier goes up and the ITN team are waved through. No one else.<\/p>\n

My Russian friend and his colleagues are left clicking their heels at the checkpoint. Beaten.<\/p>\n

And the moral is? If you want morals go to church.<\/p>\n

Update: See Sean Mulcahy’s comment below…and the moral is “never trust a drinking story”.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone has one. I have one that’s repeatable. Julian was the reporter who got the hair-dryer treatment from Robert Mugabe in Sharm el-Sheik. Julian can take it. He’s a former colleague and most decidedly not a pack operator. Let’s just say he doesn’t rely on favours from competitors to get the job done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1515,1583,1585,1512,1584],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","tag-afghanistan","tag-grozny","tag-julian-manyon","tag-lara-logan","tag-robert-mugabe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2400,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions\/2400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}