Diane L
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
I was watching CNN just now, and a news update mentioned that a reporter and a photographer from the Long Island newspaper NEWSDAY were missing. They showed a picture of them...and I used to work with the reporter, Matt McAllester.
Matt is one of the shining lights at NEWSDAY. He was born in England and raised in Scotland, which means he has one of those British accents that makes women weak in the knees. He's also good-looking, easy to talk to, and has been an Oasis fan--one of his first assignments for the paper was a review of one of their concerts. Matt started out as a Long Island reporter, then became a computer columnist. Then he became a foreign correspondent.
I was an editorial assistant for NEWSDAY's national and international news desks in the late '90s, and one of my duties was to book flights and hotel rooms for foreign correspondents. Matt covered the war in Kosovo, and I remember one especially tense afternoon when we weren't sure that he had a room anywhere...it looked like he was going to have to sleep in the street! Luckily, we did find him a place to stay eventually.
Matt was always in the center of the action. He couldn't avoid breaking events even when he went on vacation. In the summer of '99, he was vacationing in Newport, Rhode Island when John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down. He called the paper to see if he was needed, and he wound up filing articles about this sad event.
I left the paper in August '99, and when I said goodbye to Matt I said "When you win the Pulitzer Prize I'll say I knew you," to which he laughed and said, "Oh, stop that!" But I really believe he has the talent to win prizes for his reporting, and it would be good to see someone with his pleasing personality do well.
I am worried about Matt McAllester, and I pray that he will come home safely. I guess I started this thread to let people know about a really neat person who only wanted to report news, and now has become news. Thanks for reading this.
Matt is one of the shining lights at NEWSDAY. He was born in England and raised in Scotland, which means he has one of those British accents that makes women weak in the knees. He's also good-looking, easy to talk to, and has been an Oasis fan--one of his first assignments for the paper was a review of one of their concerts. Matt started out as a Long Island reporter, then became a computer columnist. Then he became a foreign correspondent.
I was an editorial assistant for NEWSDAY's national and international news desks in the late '90s, and one of my duties was to book flights and hotel rooms for foreign correspondents. Matt covered the war in Kosovo, and I remember one especially tense afternoon when we weren't sure that he had a room anywhere...it looked like he was going to have to sleep in the street! Luckily, we did find him a place to stay eventually.
Matt was always in the center of the action. He couldn't avoid breaking events even when he went on vacation. In the summer of '99, he was vacationing in Newport, Rhode Island when John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down. He called the paper to see if he was needed, and he wound up filing articles about this sad event.
I left the paper in August '99, and when I said goodbye to Matt I said "When you win the Pulitzer Prize I'll say I knew you," to which he laughed and said, "Oh, stop that!" But I really believe he has the talent to win prizes for his reporting, and it would be good to see someone with his pleasing personality do well.
I am worried about Matt McAllester, and I pray that he will come home safely. I guess I started this thread to let people know about a really neat person who only wanted to report news, and now has become news. Thanks for reading this.