NBC pulls (then unpulls) star reporter from Gaza
WARNING: This article by Glenn Greenwald has a fairly happy ending!
Glenn Greenwald recently drew our attention to the bubbling cauldron that was the departure of NBC correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin from his post in Gaza.
The story, in summary, is that shortly after his uncompromising reporting on the horrific events on Wednesday 16 July in which an Israeli ship shelled a beach in Gaza City, killing four Palestinian children and injuring several others, Mohyeldin was ordered home by NBC executive David Verdi on flimsy 'security' reasons and replaced by a more 'popular' reporter, Richard Engel, who had never been to Gaza and doesn't speak Arabic.
Since that reporting, a Twitter campaign and related outrage has seen Mohyeldin sent back to Gaza.
There is also an interview by Amy Goodman with Glenn Greenwald about this topic on the issue of Democracy Now! for 18 July 2014
We can speculate on why NBC took this action, which on the face of it seems rather weird.
A report by Brian Stelter on CNN claiming to have insider knowledge says that NBC's motives were to place the much more popular (and presumably, manageable) Engel on the story which they knew would be big news for the week.
Incidentally, I heard a contributor to a debate yesterday on Press TV that CBS has also pulled its reporter from Gaza and for ostensibly the same reasons. I have yet to hear confirmation of this item.
Glenn Greenwald recently drew our attention to the bubbling cauldron that was the departure of NBC correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin from his post in Gaza.
The story, in summary, is that shortly after his uncompromising reporting on the horrific events on Wednesday 16 July in which an Israeli ship shelled a beach in Gaza City, killing four Palestinian children and injuring several others, Mohyeldin was ordered home by NBC executive David Verdi on flimsy 'security' reasons and replaced by a more 'popular' reporter, Richard Engel, who had never been to Gaza and doesn't speak Arabic.
Since that reporting, a Twitter campaign and related outrage has seen Mohyeldin sent back to Gaza.
There is also an interview by Amy Goodman with Glenn Greenwald about this topic on the issue of Democracy Now! for 18 July 2014
We can speculate on why NBC took this action, which on the face of it seems rather weird.
A report by Brian Stelter on CNN claiming to have insider knowledge says that NBC's motives were to place the much more popular (and presumably, manageable) Engel on the story which they knew would be big news for the week.
Incidentally, I heard a contributor to a debate yesterday on Press TV that CBS has also pulled its reporter from Gaza and for ostensibly the same reasons. I have yet to hear confirmation of this item.
posted by Colin B. Bennett at 11:37 AM
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