| Username |
Post |
| SITARA |
Posted
on 31-Mar-03 10:11 AM
NBC, MSNBC terminate Arnett
Peter Arnett, center, had been reporting from Baghdad for NBC News and MSNBC while on assignment for "National Geographic Explorer."
March 31 -- Peter Arnett apologizes for the interview he gave to Iraqi TV, saying he made a "stupid misjudgement."
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
March 31 NBC and MSNBC on Monday said they had terminated their relationship with Peter Arnett after the journalist told state-run Iraqi TV that the U.S.-led coalitions initial war plan had failed and that reports from Baghdad about civilian casualties had helped antiwar protesters undermine the Bush administrations strategy.
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
Interviewed on Iraqi TV 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. Therefore, Peter Arnett will no longer be reporting for NBC News and MSNBC.
Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, appeared on NBCs Today show Monday to apologize for his statements. (MSNBC.com is an NBC News-Microsoft joint venture.)
INTERVIEW CONTENT
In the interview, 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.
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 during the interview, which was broadcast by Iraqs 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 President 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 wars 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 initially backed Arnetts interview. 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. 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. But even then the first Bush administration was unhappy with his reporting, suggesting that he had become a conveyor of propaganda.
At one point, he was denounced for his reporting about an allied bombing of a baby milk factory in Baghdad that the military said was a biological weapons plant. The U.S. military responded vigorously to the suggestion it had targeted a civilian facility, but Arnett stood by his reporting that the plants sole purpose was to make baby formula.
Arnett was also the on-air reporter of a 1998 CNN report that accused U.S. forces of using sarin gas on a Laotian village in 1970 to kill U.S. defectors. Two CNN employees were sacked, and Arnett was reprimanded over the report, which the station later retracted. Arnett later left the network.
He went to Iraq this year not as an NBC News reporter but as an employee of National Geographic Explorer. When other NBC reporters left Baghdad for safety reasons, the network began airing his reports.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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| Arnico |
Posted
on 31-Mar-03 10:41 AM
so much for free speech!
Let us hope Peter Arnett a more open minded news agency will take this opportunity to hire a great correspondent!
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| Logical Sense |
Posted
on 31-Mar-03 10:55 AM
Peter was interviewed by Matt from NBC Today after he was fired, and Peter apologized to American people many times and he seemingly seemed very sorry and sad. I really felt very touched for him.
Iraqi TV is broadcasting his interview repeatedly as propaganda and when asked 'did you provide a FUEL to Iraqi propaganda' he was vividly shaken by the question.
I really felt sorry for him. A 15 minute impromptu interview decided in a hurry put his 40 years of terrific reporting in disarray.
My personal opinion is he should have told this in much diplomatic way. Free speech should not be confused with 'irresponsible speech'. He admits given a choice he would not have told what he told.
Herdai Jaun!!!
- iti
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| mickthesick |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 04:02 PM
Anyone remember Trent Lott.....??
a single sentence ruined his 40 years of political status.....
when you are in a position like that of Lott's or Peter's......I personally think you should think a thousand times before you speak.
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| Brook |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 04:38 PM
He was almost immediately hired by a London Based tabloid The Daily Mirror.
Arnico's call seems to have been answered sooner than we all thought.
-
Brook
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| Logical Sense |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 05:01 PM
Well, that seems 'demotion' to me Brookji.
I think he ruined his 40 years of hard work himself. He himself said in NBC interview later with Matt Lowe "It was his Stupid Judgement".
- iti
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| OneGirl_123 |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 05:58 PM
Well i didnt really read Sitara's posting thoroughly but I sort of do have an idea why he was fired, because he told the media wat he really saw happen in Iraq, well I guess he was just tellin the truth, and he was fired cuz he was tellin the truth? hmm guess some people CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
:)
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| el paso |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 06:04 PM
He was fired because he is a traitor.
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| SITARA |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 06:19 PM
I really hope that Arnett's regret pertains to the timing of his interview and not the content! Sometimes, an unpopular view, however close to the reality, can hurt the speaker. I do wish him well!
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| Nepali Kanchi |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 06:24 PM
I dont think he's a traitor , he has a right to beleive what he does. Just b/c you're american, you dont have to support everything your government does, ki hoina ra? Teso bhaye ta we should all back gyanendra with no doubts what so ever, and speak highly about him now that we are Nepalis in foreign land!!!
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| Nepali Kanchi |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 06:26 PM
add: even though some of us may not agree with gyanendra(just a random example)
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| yOuNgBlOoDz |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 07:17 PM
gayera = gayena
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| yOuNgBlOoDz |
Posted
on 01-Apr-03 07:17 PM
la hai yo kanchi le pant (point) samatera kura garyo..
ahile ko mero vote.. khera gayera.. garche yesaile kehi garcha...
YB
p.s. thats a dialouge frm one nepali movie i saw couples of months ago.. frm maha jodi.. forget the name of movie.. but this guy.. who was daku of a tyme sumhow end up in politics.. n says i ll do this n that.. n people go like yesle kehi garla jasto cha.. ahile ko vote ta mero khera gayena.. blah blah blah
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| whine and chij |
Posted
on 03-Apr-03 02:23 PM
so much for freedom of the press...
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/02/sprj.irq.aljazeera/index.html
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