Life in the Wrong Lane: Why Journalists Go in When Everyone Else Wants Out

Life in the Wrong Lane chronicles the turbulent professional life of television journalist Greg Dobbs. This compilation of recollections by the long-time television correspondent encompasses a lifetime spent traveling towards and immersing oneself within dangerous situations. As Dobbs himself points out, foreign correspondence consistently requires the willingness to approach and detail unseemly situations which would cause most people to escape rather than draw near.

One would assume that given such riveting subject matter as exploits in Iran during the revolution, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan – to name but three – Dobbs’ accounts would make for enthralling prose.

Instead, the reader is puzzled as to why this book was conceived in the first place. For at its best, it provides only folksy simplifications of complex world events, such as expansionism being explained as the U.S.S.R. taking the “workers of the world unite” motto a little too seriously. Elsewhere, he typifies the Iranian Revolution as basically resulting in “a mean regime” being replaced by another one.

At its worst though, this book serves as a crass vanity project for the author who is altogether only too content to write without a reader in mind – other than, of course, himself.

The impression that Dobbs leaves is simply that he wants to prove just how dangerous his job can be – allusions to bullets and physical risk are reiterated to the point of redundancy – rather than serve to provide any meaningful account of a life spent abroad during some of the 20th century’s defining moments.

In and of itself, Dobbs’ penchant for egoism would be acceptable if he had premised the book on why he, not journalists, enter these situations. Then the book would at least be consistent with its title.

It is assumed from his narration that Dobbs so often risked life and limb only for personal gain. The residents of the countries that he details are only alluded to sparingly, though they were the ones unable to board an airplane once the news story grew stale.

Rather, Dobbs repeatedly couches his reasons for going into situations others wished to flee in patriotic and dutiful language, which reads as both self-serving and comical. For instance, in describing his time in Iran, Dobbs states that it seemed as though the American people needed him, rather than that the events of the revolution should be told.

This book leaves much to be desired, for a correspondent with as much experience as Dobbs certainly has more to recount than the stale subject matter told here.

Sadly, for someone who has spent their life telling the story from some of the world’s most dangerous places, Dobbs disappoints as a storyteller.

Published in Volume 64, Number 8 of The Uniter (October 22, 2009)

Related Reads