Peter Arnett Fired !!
Original article found at http://www.msnbc.com/news/893115.asp#BODY
|
|
MSN Home | My MSN | Hotmail | Search | Shopping | Money | People & Chat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
  |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||
  |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES |
|||||
| March 31 — NBC, MSNBC and National Geographic said Monday that they had terminated their relationship with Peter Arnett after the journalist told state-run Iraqi TV that the U.S.-led coalition’s initial war plan had failed and that reports from Baghdad about civilian casualties had helped antiwar protesters undermine the Bush administration’s strategy. | |||||
|
|
‘I am
still in shock and awe at being fired. I report the truth of what is
happening here in Baghdad and will not apologize for it.’ — PETER ARNETT In article for British tabloid |
“IT WAS wrong
for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV —
especially at a time of war — and it was wrong for him to discuss his
personal observations and opinions in that interview,” NBC News President
Neal Shapiro said in a statement issued a day after a network spokeswoman
initially defended the correspondent. “Therefore, Peter Arnett will no
longer be reporting for NBC News and MSNBC.” National Geographic, for whom Arnett first traveled to Baghdad, said it, too, had “terminated the service of Peter Arnett.” “The Society did not authorize or have any prior knowledge of Arnett’s television interview with Iraqi television,” it said in a statement, “and had we been consulted, would not have allowed it. His decision to grant an interview and express his personal views on state-controlled Iraqi television, especially during a time of war, was a serious error in judgment and wrong.” Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, appeared on NBC’s “Today” show Monday to apologize for his statements. (MSNBC.com is an NBC News-Microsoft joint venture.) HIRED BY ANTIWAR U.K. TABLOID |
|||||||
|
However, in his
first article for The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid newspaper that
announced later Monday that it had hired him, Arnett declared in a
front-page article that “I report the truth of what is happening here in
Baghdad and will not apologize for it.” “I am still in shock and awe at being fired,” Arnett wrote. “Fired by America for telling the truth,” said the headline on an accompanying article announcing the hiring of Arnett, whom the newspaper called “the legendary war reporter.” The Daily Mirror is vehemently opposed to the war and has led a vigorous editorial campaign against President Bush. On Thursday, its front page was devoted to a photo of a crying Iraqi civilian above a photo of a grinning Bush, with the headline, “Dead British troops paraded on Iraqi TV, 14 civilians killed in Baghdad market and Bush whoops it up. War? HE LOVES IT.” A week ago, the newspaper’s only front-page headline declared: “Still anti-war? Yes, bloody right we are.” INTERVIEW CONTENT In the Iraqi TV interview that led to his dismissal, Arnett said his Iraqi friends had told him that there was a growing sense of nationalism and resistance to what the United States and Britain were doing. |
|||||||
|
‘Our
reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi
forces, are going back to the United States. It helps those who oppose the
war, when you challenge the policy, to develop their arguments.’ — PETER ARNETT On Iraqi TV |
He said the
United States was reappraising the battlefield and delaying the war, maybe
for a week, “and rewriting the war plan. The first war plan has failed
because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan.” “Clearly, the American war plans misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces,” Arnett said in the interview, which was broadcast by Iraq’s satellite television station and monitored by the AP in Egypt. Arnett said it was clear that there was growing opposition to the war within the United States and a growing challenge to Bush. “Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States,” he said. “It helps those who oppose the war, when you challenge the policy, to develop their arguments.” The interview was broadcast in English and translated by a green military uniform-wearing Iraqi anchor. NBC said Arnett gave the interview when asked shortly after he attended an Iraqi government briefing. The interview quickly made Arnett a target of the war’s supporters. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said on Fox News Channel that she found the interview “nauseating” and accused Arnett of “kowtowing to what clearly is the enemy in this way.” NBC backed Arnett’s interview Sunday before changing its mind Monday. “His impromptu interview with Iraqi TV was done as a professional courtesy and was similar to other interviews he has done with media outlets from around the world,” NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust said in a statement Sunday. “His remarks were analytical in nature and were not intended to be anything more. His outstanding reporting on the war speaks for itself.” BACKGROUND SINCE 1991 Arnett garnered much of his prominence from covering the 1991 Gulf War for CNN. The first Bush administration was unhappy with his reporting, suggesting that he had become a conveyor of propaganda. |
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||
|
|
||||||||||
  |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Bombing
batters Baghdad defenders
