A Bomb Detonates, and an Anchorman Tells a Story of the War by Becoming the Story

New York Times ^ | January 30, 2006 | Allessandra Stanley

[Lorianne]

Bob Woodruff was in Baghdad for ABC reporting the good news that the Bush administration complains is ignored by the news media, and he ended up as a glaring illustration of the bad news.

Mr. Woodruff, the newly named co-anchor of "World News Tonight," spent Friday chatting with friendly Iraqis on the street and slurped ice cream at a popular Baghdad shop to show how some in Iraq are seeking a semblance of normalcy.

Yesterday he and an ABC cameraman, Doug Vogt, were badly injured while traveling in a routine convoy with Iraqi military forces who are being trained to impose that normalcy and allow American troops to go home.

What happened to Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Vogt was one of those chilling television moments that mark a milestone. This conflict has shown all too clearly that soldiers, civilians, aid workers and journalists are all targets.

Soldiers, American and Iraqi, are wounded and killed by roadside bombs and ambushes every day in tragedies so common they float to the back pages. But until now, at least, network anchors always seemed to sail through hot spots with an inalienable aura of invulnerability, like senators or movie stars.

Mr. Woodruff's plight underscored at a whole new level that Americans there feel like sitting ducks, picked off by a faceless enemy.

[Lorianne]

Sad that Woodward and Vogt got hurt but the NY Times seems to be making more of it than that.

[nunya bidness]

But until now, at least, network anchors always seemed to sail through hot spots with an inalienable aura of invulnerability, like senators or movie stars.

Tell that to David Bloom.

[Mobile Vulgus]

I heard this UNNEWSWORTHY story all day long. These news twerps are falling all over themselves to report ABOUT THEMSELVES while IGNORING the real story!

[NormsRevenge]

If the NY Times were really honest here, it would admit its own culpability in that it has been as much responsible for the prolongation of this war effort thru its obliqure war support and endangered more than need to have been if it hadn't gotten so all fired wrapped up in getting the Bush administration by any means available to them, that goes for the whole damn MSM crowd of malcontents who have made the terrorists out to be the oppressed more often times than not.

That being said, I wish the injured a full recovery..

[NormsRevenge]

oblique

[Echo Talon]

Maybe Mr. Woodmuff knows who the enemy is now.

[IncPen]

I can't help but feel that the Times is enjoying the misfortune that they feel that this incident reflects upon Bush, while at the same time lamenting that it happened to a 'journalist'.

Ironic, in a way, that the reporting is the same day that Ted Koppel feels the need to tell us we're all worse off now that he and his cohorts can't dictate what's news anymore...

[demkicker]

Ask me if I'd feel bad if the pompous Allessandra Stanley got injured by an IED and couldn't write for the NY Slimes anymore.

[Dallas59]

Some more opinions...

[CharlesWayneCT]

This story seems to have a lot more play than the story of the journalist who got mugged to death in DC a couple of weeks ago (who was so important, btw, that members of the judiciary committee actually left the Alito hearings to attend his funeral -- so it wasn't some nobody journalist.

I didn't read any stories about how dangerous it was to be a journalist in DC, or how this shows the failure of the democrats to control crime in their cities.

[2111USMC]

"ABC reporting the good news that the Bush administration complains is ignored by the news media, and he ended up as a glaring illustration of the bad news."

Once again the New York Slimes has twisted a story to fit it's "we hate Bush" doctrine.

What whores.

[reagan_fanatic]

Mr. Woodruff's plight underscored at a whole new level that Americans there feel like sitting ducks, picked off by a faceless enemy.

*wringing hands*

Oh please, Mr. BusHitler, stop this illegal war and bring our frightened and confused boys home now where they'll be safe from harm in our loving bosoms...

/sarc

[Moonman62]

They can hardly contain their glee.

[msnimje]

And Allessandra Stanley writes another column full of supposition and nuance.

(This is the reporter who wrote a story saying Geraldo pushed an Airman out of the way to carry a lady out of her apartment New Orleans. They played the tape repeatedly and it just didn't happen yet she would not issue a retraction or apology.)

[Radix]

Now that Woodruff has stepped in his own shit are we supposed to hear about these intrepid reporters for the rest of our days?

My son lost a good many of his friends while deployed over in that sheitehole, and ABC News had little good to say about him or his comrades.

Too bad Woody, but you are not the story.

I cannot believe how agitated I am am concerning this business.

SCREW YOU ABC so-called NEWS!

[RobbyS]

Sitting ducks? Not exactly, although it is scary when the enemy knows your routes. But some of this has to be with inconsistencies arising from the constant rotations. Just when you get smart, you are on your way home, and the incoming guys never listen to what you tell them. They, too, have to learn the hard way.

[jveritas]

The New York Times is using the injury of the ABC anchor and cameraman to blame President Bush. The liberal media hate for the President has no bound.

[Fiddlstix]

Sad that Woodward and Vogt got hurt but the NY Times seems to be making more of it than that.

That's because the NY Times is nothing but.........

Click the Pic

[Berlin_Freeper]

You never hear the LibIdiot Media report on success.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Elements of Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment and Explosive Ordnance Disposal found a roadside bomb south of Baghdad Jan. 25.
EOD performed a controlled detonation of the unexploded ordnance.
Post-blast analysis of the previous bomb strike determined that three daisy-chained charges were placed in oil barrels with 30 to 40 pounds of homemade explosives in each barrel.
There were no injuries or damages in this incident.
MND-B’s 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment discovered a weapons cache late Jan. 25.
The cache consisted of 56 sticks of TNT, one box of .50 caliber rounds, one block of C4 explosive, four 60mm rounds, three individual fuses and one box of fuses.
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment conducted a cordon and search based on a tip from a local national Jan. 25.
The patrol found two local nationals whose names and descriptions matched those in the tip, a pistol and a diagrammed location of a planned ambush on Coalition Forces.
The patrol continued to search the house and detained the two local nationals for questioning.
The above incidents are under investigation.

http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom1/Lists/Press%20Releases/DispForm.aspx?ID=2610&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecentcom%2Emil%2Fsites%2Fuscentcom1%2FLists%2FPress%2520Releases%2FCurrent%2520Releases%2Easpx

[Tyche]

I wonder when he recovers if he will pull at Robert Fisk and love his attackers.

Robert Fisk Article:
http://www.robert-fisk.com/articles1.htm