Many of his colleagues considered Schork the ultimate reporter—his first instinct was to be on the scene to provide as many details as quickly as possible.  With a brilliant and analytical mind that no detail was too small for, he probed and uncovered until the naked truth stared back at the reader.  His deep moral convictions guided him to help the people in need, or he would simply give the helpless victims his own money.

In his assignments abroad—from Bosnia to Iraq; from Afghanistan to Chechnya—Schork trod the narrow line between passionate reporting and advocacy, and feeling intensely for the people whose lives—and deaths—he covered.  In his coverage of the siege of Sarajevo, his reporting had a decisive influence on history, mobilizing public opinion and prompting NATO to intervene in the conflict.  His work was not without risk.  Later in his career, he narrowly escaped imprisonment or possibly death in the then Serb-controlled province of Kosovo. 

“War reporting is a job, a craft—not a holy crusade. The thing is to work and not get hurt. When that’s no longer possible, it’s time to get out.  You know that time has come when your passport—mine’s American—and your press credentials are no longer guarantors of special treatment from local authorities but your ticket to a beating, jail, or worse.” –Kurt Schork