Herbert Matthews Was a Role Model for Engaged Journalism

Herbert Matthews of the New York Times was one of the great reporters of his time. US conservatives still haven’t forgiven him for his 1957 interview with Fidel Castro and even blamed him for the success of the Cuban Revolution.

Whether covering international conflict in Ukraine or Gaza or reporting from the front lines of the culture wars, journalists are, we are frequently told, unreliable, biased, and motivated by partisan political agendas. It is a charge that has echoed for as long as journalists have plied their trade and has been leveled against some of America’s foremost reporters, including Herbert Lionel Matthews of the New York Times, one of the finest war reporters of the twentieth century.

Matthews had made his name covering the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the Spanish Civ