Nate Thayer, journalist who landed Pol Pot interview, dies at 62. Let’s see more details about Nate Thayer and his cause of death in detail.
What happened to Nate Thayer?
Mr. Thayer wrote last year that he was in declining health, including developing sepsis after foot surgery, and was told by doctors he “will never walk again.”
With his health failing, he spent his final months posting poetic odes to his “best pal,” his dog, Lamont.
very sad news — Nate was really gifted, and a singular mix of gonzo and serious/earnest — he had demons, but he could be very good company and very funny, and a hell of a reporter — RIPhttps://t.co/MAArk5qjRu
— Philip Gourevitch (@PGourevitch) January 5, 2023
Cause of Death
Robert Thayer said his brother’s body was found on Jan. 3, but it was not immediately clear when he died. “He had a lot of ailments, he was seriously ill for many months,” the brother told AFP
At this point, it is unknown precisely what led to his death apart from the confirmation of his death and the exact cause of the death of Robert Thayer was not released as well.
Nate Thayer, journalist who landed Pol Pot interview, dies at 62 https://t.co/eWJrPOkASs
— Nirmal Ghosh (@karmanomad) January 5, 2023
Who is Nate Thayer?
Nate Thayer (April 21, 1960 – January 3, 2023) was an American freelance writer . He covered international organized crime, drug trafficking, human rights, and armed conflicts.
Most renowned for having interviewed Pol Pot as the Far Eastern Economic Review’s Cambodia correspondent. Thayer contributed to Jane’s Defence Weekly, Soldier of Fortune, the Associated Press, and over 40 other publications, including The Cambodia Daily and The Phnom Penh Post.
Nate Thayer, an American journalist who chased stories of conflict across the jungles of Southeast Asia and was the last Western correspondent to interview the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal leader Pol Pot, has died at his home in Falmouth, Mass. He was 62.
Nate’s Peak Career
Mr. Thayer’s reportage on Pol Pot’s dying months remained the journalistic highlight of his career, garnering international prominence. His study also gave vital historical details to the Khmer Rouge’s “killing fields” legacy from 1975 to 1979. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians were killed, including intellectuals, doctors, dissidents, and others, as the regime attempted to impose a radical agrarian Communist system.
“He lighted a page of history that would have been lost to the world if he hadn’t spent years in the Cambodian bush,” the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists said in a 1998 award.
Nate’s Moments with Pol Pot
Mr. Thayer had persuaded members of the surviving Khmer Rouge factions a year before that international attention was required for Pol Pot’s reckoning with those former insurgents who had turned against him.
“Crush, crush, crush Pol Pot and his gang,” some screamed when Mr. Thayer and an Asia Works Television cameraman, David McKaige, arrived at the remote Anlong Veng camp.
Mr. Thayer detailed in the Far Eastern Economic Review how Pol Pot was condemned to life in jail and taken away in a Toyota Land Cruiser with tinted windows.
“Some folks bowed reverently as if to royalty,” he wrote. Mr. Thayer did not get the opportunity to question Pol Pot.
Nate Thayer's remarkable dispatch from Anlong Veng, #Cambodia, documenting his meeting and interview with Pol Pot. Published in the Far Eastern Economic Review, Oct. 30, 1997. pic.twitter.com/Lv42ogd6dc
— Sebastian Strangio (@sstrangio) January 5, 2023
Nate’s Early Life
Thayer was born in Massachusetts in 1960. His father was US Ambassador to Singapore from 1980 to 1985, Harry E. T. Thayer. Thayer received his education at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
From 1980 to 1982, he was a member of the Boston-based Clamshell Alliance, serving as a spokesman during protests at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant and anti-draft demonstrations.
Thayer began his work in Southeast Asia near the Thai-Cambodian border, where he participated in an academic study project in 1984, interviewing 50 Cham survivors of Khmer Rouge crimes at Nong Samet Refugee Camp.
He then returned to Massachusetts, where he served as Transportation Director for the state Office of Handicapped Affairs for a short time. “I got fired,” Thayer admitted.
I was a terrible bureaucrat.
Nightline controversy
According to Thayer, Ted Koppel of ABC News verbally agreed with Thayer to show trial footage on Nightline, but later broke that agreement. He came home with a duplicate of my videotape.
I handed it to him in exchange for his firm commitment that it would only be used on Nightline. However, once he had a copy of the tape, ABC News distributed videos, still photographs, and even transcripts of my interviews to news organizations all over the world.
ABC News, backed up by a formidable legal and public relations team. He took still images from the tape, put the “ABC News Exclusive” branding on them, and hand-delivered them to newspapers, wire services, and television.
Mr. Thayer launched a five-year storm of complaints and repeated demands for more money.
Honors and awards
“From the renowned Richard Hughes of Korean War fame to Nate Thayer, the writer who identified Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge commander Pol Pot, many of the region’s finest names in reporting left their mark in the pages of the Review.”
Thayer was also the only person in 57 years to decline a prestigious Peabody Award because he did not want to share it with ABC News’ Nightline, whom he thought stole his story and robbed him and the Far Eastern Economic Review of income.
Since 1999, the Nate Thayer Scholarship has been presented by Hofstra University’s Department of Journalism and Mass Media Studies in the School of Communication to a qualified student with an outstanding overseas story concept. The winners are chosen based on their academic achievements.
Nate Thayer, who interviewed Khmer Rouge’s Pol Pot, dead at 62 https://t.co/FHKS0rDAQ5
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) January 5, 2023
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