Posted on 04/30/2003 6:29:30 PM PDT by mhking
NEW YORK - NBC News has swooped in and signed Richard Engel, a former freelancer who became one of ABC's most visible war correspondents when he stayed in Baghdad while other reporters left.
Engel, 29, will begin reporting for NBC from Baghdad in early May, the network said Wednesday.
In the days before the war, ABC, NBC and CBS all pulled reporters from Baghdad, concerned about their safety, and didn't send them back until American troops reached the Iraqi capital.
Engel, a freelancer, decided to stay. Despite inexperience that occasionally manifested itself as boyish enthusiasm, Engel was used frequently on ABC News broadcasts, where his dashing good looks and bravery drew notice.
It was a career, and life, gamble that paid off. Engel signed with one of television's most prominent agents, Richard Liebner, while still in Baghdad.
Engel said he chose NBC News over ABC because ``it is the No. 1 news outlet, it has cable outlets and it seems to be growing and flourishing. I thought there were quite a few opportunities for growth.''
He said he was grateful to ABC News for the chance to work from Baghdad.
With affiliated cable networks MSNBC and CNBC, NBC News offers more extensive opportunities for airtime than ABC or CBS. In the most commonly used barometer of network news division strength, Tom Brokaw's evening news program is top-rated, with its lead over ABC growing.
``Richard did great work under difficult conditions and we're grateful for it,'' ABC News spokeswoman Cathie Levine said. ``We made a very generous offer. Clearly, he got an offer that was more generous than that. We wish him well.''
ABC offers plenty of airtime opportunities for young journalists, she said. ABC reporters Claire Shipman and Brian Ross had jumped from NBC.
Terms of Engel's contract were not disclosed.
Engel, who has written for Reuters, USA Today and reported from the Middle East for a news series that appeared on PBS and the BBC, arrived in Baghdad two weeks before the war started. Because he could speak Arabic and didn't have a large crew with him, he said he felt reasonably safe.
``I didn't want to risk my life for an opportunity,'' he said. ``If you're dead, there's no real opportunity.''
I don't know that I'd agree with all of that. Surely the reporters that stayed knew there was going to be a war. Seeing the raw footage of Mr Pretty Chicken was entertaining. Does anyone know if he ever got the hair cut and shave he wanted?
I sure miss the bag cam, Achmed and Farik Sinatra.
Somebody please remind me why I remain alive?
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030412.asp#1
"ABC's Engel in Baghdad Finds Disillusion and Disgust with U.S. "
" Less than 48 hours after Iraqis toppled the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad and before U.S. forces had even managed to take full control of the city, ABC's Richard Engel decided that chaos in the streets meant “time may be running out” for the Americans. “There is a growing sense of disillusionment,” Engel contended since “Iraqis wanted U.S. troops to bring them freedom and security.”
Baghdad-based Engel highlighted the views of three Iraqis, all of whom denounced the United States. One woman demanded: “Did the Americans come to protect us or to kill us?” And Engel quoted a man who charged: “Now we know that America came to occupy us. They came to steal our oil and our riches and then to leave.”
Engel may be the only non-Arab reporter in Baghdad to have managed to find both universal love for Saddam Hussein up until early this week and universal hatred of the U.S. since his regime fell.
In contrast, CBS's Dan Rather, who arrived in Baghdad in time for Friday's CBS Evening News, found the people glad to have been liberated and appreciative of the U.S.: “Unlike the celebrations of earlier in the week, many of the streets of Baghdad are now deserted. Fear rules. Among the few people we did see out, all were wary, but they all said they had gratitude for what they called their 'liberation.'”
An older man, in bad English, identified on screen as “Maj. Naji Alwal, former Iraqi soldier,” told Rather: “We are happy when we see them. We said salute, [puts two fingers into V] salute, down Saddam Hussein [points hand downward], long live America, British.”
All the networks, both cable and broadcast, focused much of their Friday coverage on looting and overburdened hospitals in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, but none went so far as ABC, which featured three full stories Friday night on looting, or Engel's discovery of universal disgust toward America.
“Lawlessness has become deadly,” Engel warned at the top of his April 11 World News Tonight piece as he described the lynching of Ba'ath party members in a day of revenge-taking. After showing some looting, Engel cautioned: “This opportunism and greed are costing innocent lives. Carjackers killed this man today. 'Did the Americans come to protect us?' asks this woman at the funeral, 'or to kill us?' People here accuse the U.S. forces of purposely turning a blind eye to the looting.”
Iraqi man in bad English: “They are stealing. Who is responsible for this? Who's in charge now?”
Engel asserted: “There is a growing sense of disillusionment. Iraqis wanted U.S. troops to bring them freedom and security, but Iraqis are having to protect themselves and have started setting up impromptu check points...”
Engel showed men who put tires across a road to block it and then noted that mosques are reminding their attendees that stealing is against Islamic law.
Engel even found an American to criticize U.S. policy: “At the U.S. military checkpoints, the soldiers do seem to regret that they're doing nothing to stop what's happening around them.”
1st Lt. Nicholas Kauffeld, U.S. Marine Corps: “It's Americans' job to provide stability to the city and to the country.”
Engel ominously warned: “But time may be running out. People here don't seem prepared to give the United States the benefit of the doubt. 'Now we know that America came to occupy us' says this man, 'they came to steal our oil and our riches and then to leave.' It's a suspicion that will undoubtedly spread unless calm and basic services are restored here soon.”
'Nuff said. Then there was that humanitarian crisis that began 20 minutes after the bombing. Don't any of the journalists question why there was no food or meds. The UN sent it. Where'd it go? Stolen by the demon who killed his way to the top. They are such leftist morons. Perhaps Engle should pick up a history book or two.
Get it right. The true duo were Norm Habib and Achmed Vila. The program was the "This Old Bunker Weekend Marathon".
FReeper Lore cannot be corrupted. Farik Sinatra was the latecomer who provided the musical interludes.
Nam Vet
What the ???
Pretty Boy slept .. only to wake up and ask headquarters what the news was so that he could report on it
NBC just wasted their money
Pretty Chicken [rakes fingers through hair, pleading into the camera]: Liz, what's come over the wires. I slept through my alarm.
[Continues raking fingers through hair]
G*d,I need a haircut. My hair, I can't do ANYTHING with it.
[Smooths hair down with the palms of his hands]
I can't believe I slept through World News Tonight...Do I look all right?
Liz, Liz...3..2..1..3..2..1...Can you hear me now?
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