Mr Engel took a job as a foreign correspondent at NBC of his own free will. Similarly, no one twisted his arm to cover the fighting in Syria. Having said all that, if you want to search for culpability, look no further than the assignment editors, senior producers and NBC News executives, along with Brian Williams himself. All of the networks have been competing to se who can get someone deep into Syria, so they can get an exclusive of Assad’s head on a pole, or his jet flying off into exile.
Having worked in the salt mines of broadcasting, I’m guessing the phone conference went something like this: Engel, touting his years of experience in the Middle East, probably announced he had trusted connections who could get him into the heart of the fighting. Someone in New York probably asked a perfunctory question about safety, and Engel assured them that his contacts could be trusted. After that, Engel had the green light and NBC had covered its corporate butt.
Worth remembering that Engel, in all likelihood, was not traveling alone. Chief foreign correspondents usually have a crew consisting of a producer, videographer, a sound man, a translator (although Engel is fluent in Arabic) and even their own security personnel.
Guessing Engel was set up, either by Al Qaida factions with the rebels, or the Assad regime. Hate to say it, but Mr. Engel is likely a dead man, killed to send a message to the western media to stay out of Syria. I’ll pray for his survival (along with his colleagues), but the odds of their safe return are very, very slim.
The report says NBC’s Turkish correspondent, Aziz Akyavas, went missing at the same time.
Good analysis. Wish we’d see more of this type of thinking rather than repulsive flames and trolls here.