Peter Arnett

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Denise Caruso <caruso () hybridvigor org>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 12:25:00 -0800
To: farber () dsl cis upenn edu
Subject: Fwd: Peter Arnett

my dear god. what fresh horror.

> http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/31/sprj.irq.arnett/index.html


NBC: Arnett out after Iraqi TV interview

Monday, March 31, 2003 Posted: 11:20 AM EST (1620 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- NBC announced Monday that both NBC and
National Geographic severed their relationships with veteran war
correspondent Peter Arnett.

In an interview that aired on Iraqi TV Sunday, Arnett said that the
U.S. "war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are
trying to write another war plan. Clearly, the American war planners
misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces."

On Sunday, NBC News had issued a statement supporting Arnett, saying
that Arnett gave the interview to Iraqi TV as a "professional
courtesy" and that his remarks "were analytical in nature and were
not intended to be anything more."

But a day later, NBC issued a different statement. "It was wrong for
him to grant an interview to state-run Iraqi TV, especially in a time
of war."

National Geographic issued a statement that read:

"The Society did not authorize or have any prior knowledge of
Arnett's television interview with Iraqi television, and had we been
consulted, would not have allowed it."

The statement went on to say that Arnett's "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 had been reporting from Baghdad for NBC News and MSNBC while
on assignment for National Geographic Explorer.

Monday morning, Arnett appeared on NBC's Today Show with Today
co-host Matt Lauer and apologized for his comments.

"I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a
misjudgment over the weekend by giving an interview to Iraqi
television," said Arnett, who added that what he said in the
interview was "what we all know about the war."

"There have been delays in implementing policy and there [have] been
surprises. But clearly, by giving that interview to Iraqi television,
I created a firestorm in the United States and for that I am truly
sorry, Matt," he said.

During the Sunday interview, Arnett also said that Iraq had given him
and other reporters a "degree of freedom which we appreciate." Iraq
has expelled several journalists, including CNN's Baghdad team, and
apparently has imprisoned two journalists from the New York newspaper
Newsday.

Arnett is a member of the board of directors of the Committee to
Protect Journalists, which is trying to locate the missing
journalists.

During the Iraqi TV interview, Arnett said, "I'd like to say from the
beginning that [for] the 12 years I've been coming here, I've met
unfailing courtesy and cooperation, courtesy from your people and
cooperation from the Ministry of Information."

Arnett told the Iraqi TV interviewer, who was dressed in an Iraqi
Army uniform, that President Bush is facing a "growing challenge"
about the "conduct of the war" within the United States.

"President Bush says he is concerned about the Iraqi people, but if
Iraqi people are dying in numbers, then American policy will be
challenged very strongly," he said. In the interview, Arnett said
reports from Baghdad about civilians being killed are being shown in
the United States, and "it helps those who oppose the war when you
challenge the policy to develop their arguments."

He pointed out U.S. claims that civilians killed in an explosion at a
downtown Baghdad market were the victims of Iraqi missiles, and that
Iraq had said the missiles were definitely incoming coalition fire.

Arnett also said, "Clearly, this is a city that is disciplined, the
population is responsive to the government's requirements of
discipline," and "Iraqi friends tell me there is a growing sense of
nationalism and resistance to what the United States and Britain
[are] doing."

The longtime war correspondent, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his
reporting during the Vietnam War and reported on the Persian Gulf War
for CNN in 1991, said U.S. war planners miscalculated the will of
Iraqis and he does "not understand how that happened."

He said his reports "would tell the Americans about the determination
of the Iraqi forces, the determination of the government and the
willingness to fight for their country."
>


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