The selfie Krohn tweeted from the top of Mt Sinjar
Jonathan Krohn is by any measure an exceptional young man. He published his first political book at the age of 13 and followed it up with a second a year later. In between he made a William Hague-like appearance in front of an American conservatives conference. Now, at the great age of 19, he is reporting from Iraq for the Telegraph and the Economist.
The top of today's Telegraph proclaims in red and black:
Iraq's mountain of death Telegraph reporter is first to witness devastation of trapped families
With such a coup, you might have expected the paper to splash on the report. It is a compelling, but calmly written first-hand account from the top of Mt Sinjar that mostly eschews the first person. There is more than enough meat in the copy to justify the top slot, which is instead given to the Revenue's latest move against wealthy tax avoiders.
Iraq's mountain of death Telegraph reporter is first to witness devastation of trapped families
With such a coup, you might have expected the paper to splash on the report. It is a compelling, but calmly written first-hand account from the top of Mt Sinjar that mostly eschews the first person. There is more than enough meat in the copy to justify the top slot, which is instead given to the Revenue's latest move against wealthy tax avoiders.
On the dry mountain the Yazidis fight with the goats for the remaining water. In the distance, the lights of Islamic State checkpoints loom menacingly (Krohn writes).
Yesterday those stuck behind Islamic State lines began reporting the group's latest slaughter: hundreds of members of tehir arcane but colourful sect massacred for refusing to convert to Islam.
On the mountain the rumours from their relatives only added to the sense of panic and despair. One man told this reporter...that jihadists had stormed through his village, killing every adult healthy male. Others talked of hundreds of women being abducted. Reports came in elsewhere of women and children being buried alive.
The report continues with a number of quotes from people on the mountain and voices of authority. He concludes with the words of an MP who says: "We have one or two days left to help these people, after that they will start dying en masse."
The Guardian also has a first-person account from Iraq. Martin Chulov reports from Duhok that half the people who had been stranded on the mountain had reached safety via Syria. Unfortunately, the paper doesn't tell us where Duhok is in relation to the mountain or even give it a dot on the map on its inside spread. But again, it is a compelling read, calmly told.
The Guardian also has a first-person account from Iraq. Martin Chulov reports from Duhok that half the people who had been stranded on the mountain had reached safety via Syria. Unfortunately, the paper doesn't tell us where Duhok is in relation to the mountain or even give it a dot on the map on its inside spread. But again, it is a compelling read, calmly told.
The Mail, in common with the Independent, i and Sun, carries a piece on its front about the alleged burial alive of 500 Yazidis and the abduction of 300 women. The paper devotes four inside pages to Iraq, including a first-person piece on page 7.
Hang on, didn't the Telegraph have the first Western journalist on the mountain?
Ah, it's the same reporter. Maybe it's a syndicated piece. But the style here is quite different from that in the Telegraph:
Hang on, didn't the Telegraph have the first Western journalist on the mountain?
Ah, it's the same reporter. Maybe it's a syndicated piece. But the style here is quite different from that in the Telegraph:
Mount Sinjar stinks of death. The few Yazidis who have managed to escape its clutches can tell you why.
'Dogs were eating the bodies of the dead,' said Haji Khedev Haydev, 65, who ran through the lines of Islamic State jihadists surrounding it.
On Sunday night I became the first Western journalist to reach the mountain where tens of thousands of Yazidis, a previously obscure Middle Eastern sect, have taken refuge from the Islamic State forces that seized their largest town Sinjar.
I was aboard an Iraqi Army helicopter and watched as...
There is a lot more "me" journalism here; perhaps the Mail wanted something a bit more boastful. But looking closely, it becomes apparent that this is a completely different account. This writer must be really special to produce two separate reports for two British newspapers on the same day - and with numerous people quoted in each.
A quick google reveals Krohn's youthfulness and precocious background - and a link to a Sunday Telegraph article starting "Mount Sinjar stinks of death..."
Sure enough, it is the selfsame piece published in the Mail today.
The strange thing is that it wasn't printed in the Sunday Telegraph. A few paragraphs have been woven into a wrap splash for which Krohn is given top billing in a joint byline, but much of the best material, including the comments of the people he met on the mountain, is missing.
Nevertheless, he was pleased enough to tweet:
A quick google reveals Krohn's youthfulness and precocious background - and a link to a Sunday Telegraph article starting "Mount Sinjar stinks of death..."
Sure enough, it is the selfsame piece published in the Mail today.
The strange thing is that it wasn't printed in the Sunday Telegraph. A few paragraphs have been woven into a wrap splash for which Krohn is given top billing in a joint byline, but much of the best material, including the comments of the people he met on the mountain, is missing.
Nevertheless, he was pleased enough to tweet:
My first ever Sunday @Telegraph feature. And I got to cobyline with @Richard_Spencer! http://t.co/9kpYApS94n
— Jonathan Lee Krohn (@JonathanLKrohn) August 9, 2014 Inside the Sunday Telegraph is a spread that includes the splash turn, a graphic, a commentary from Lord Dannatt, and a good colour piece from Richard Spencer on ageing Peshmergas hoping to protect Erbil from IS forces.
But wouldn't you want also to make more of the one available eye-witness account from the mountain where we had been given to understand tens of thousands faced dying of thirst?
Even today, there is no link to that original despatch from Krohn's later account or from any other report of the day's events. Is this deliberate, and if so why?
And as to the Mail, what was the deal that led it to print the whole of Krohn's first effort, but without the front-page "first man up the mountain" fanfare we have come to expect from the paper?
It may not matter much in the grand scheme of things, but it's all very peculiar.
In the meantime, here's a taste of the 13-year-old Krohn in action:
But wouldn't you want also to make more of the one available eye-witness account from the mountain where we had been given to understand tens of thousands faced dying of thirst?
Even today, there is no link to that original despatch from Krohn's later account or from any other report of the day's events. Is this deliberate, and if so why?
And as to the Mail, what was the deal that led it to print the whole of Krohn's first effort, but without the front-page "first man up the mountain" fanfare we have come to expect from the paper?
It may not matter much in the grand scheme of things, but it's all very peculiar.
In the meantime, here's a taste of the 13-year-old Krohn in action:
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