The Global Freelancer

Introduction

I wrote in black permanent marker: “PRESS” on the front and back of a light blue multi-pocket vest I had just bought outside a mosque only a couple blocks from my apartment in Tepebaşı, Istanbul.

The khaki version was sold out so I didn’t quite look like the image I had in my mind of a brave, confident Peter Jennings reporting from a conflict zone with tan cargo pants and a matching sagging vest, to hold all the things foreign correspondents . . . hold.

Instead, I looked like a blue bootlegged “foreign correspondent” wannabe, with just a reporter’s notebook and my iPod Touch as my only means to cover the rioting that had taken over Istanbul’s touristy Taksim Square. I had no high-priced DSLR, professional audio recording equipment, ...