This biography does two things: It gives the answer to the question everyone is thinking, which is, "Why would anyone go to such dangerous places voluntarily?" and also, it explains Fletcher's deep commitment to sharing the truth from around the world, especially in places that we'd rather ignore to stay comfortable. His career has been defined by this feature of his journalism, and it's one of the reasons he has such high praise from others in his field.
Fletcher was born in 1947, they year Israel was formed as a nation, and only two years after the world discovered the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust. The question on everyone's mind was, "Why didn't we know that the Jews were being rounded up and killed?" That question defined Fletcher as a person, and when his own career was initiated in Israel, twenty-something years later, he finally got the opportunity to make good on his promise to report the truth. Syria and Egypt invaded to help the Palestinian Arabs to overthrow the Israeli state. Suddenly, Fletcher was standing in literal crossfire with bullets being shot all around. But he stayed, and more than that, he loved reporting on war so much he made a career out of it.
Perhaps Fletcher is an adrenaline junkie (it's hard to argue that he isn't). But also, Fletcher's work is deeply human, seriously artistic and excellent, and rigorously honest, even to the point of disturbing his own audience in the name of truth. Nothing speaks more to Fletcher's commitment to speak the truth than his reporting style when it comes to human death. Fletcher will film the dead and dying and show it on television, even though most people would never dream of that.
