NBC, MSNBC terminate Arnett (Includes video of Today show interview)

MSNBC ^ | March 30, 2003

[Dont Mention the War]

NBC, MSNBC terminate Arnett

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 coalition’s initial war plan had failed and that reports from Baghdad about civilian casualties had helped antiwar protesters undermine the Bush administration’s strategy.

       “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 NBC’s “Today” show Monday to apologize for his statements. (MSNBC.com is an NBC News-Microsoft joint venture)
       
Peter Arnett's Baghdad Dairy [sic]

       
INTERVIEW CONTENT

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Here it it:
newsdesk@nationalgeographic.com

[Redleg Duke]

If he really...really means it...give him a pistol and one round and tell him to do the honorable thing.

[Kip Lange]

Freeped, bump.

[Verginius Rufus]

Peter Arnett's mistake (from NBC's standpoint) is to have tipped the hand of the antiwar movement.

Is Arnett an American citizen? He is a New Zealander, but might have decided to become naturalized for some reason.

[8mmMauser]

He is naturalized American, eligible for prosecution.

[8mmMauser]

Michael Moore??? Now that is cruel and unusual punishment.
That is the most disgusting torture I can imagine, no I can't even think about it.

Guess I will have to be content with watching the fires of the Ministry of Information and imagining how he will explain to our teams when they arrive. (If they haven't already.)

I mean, he is still there, isn't he?

[MamaLucci]

One is left to wonder why, having "fired" Arnett, NBC
turns around and books him to appear on the Today show.

[browardchad]

Make no mistake Kouric, Brokaw and many others at NBC are not very different from Arnett.

Add Matt Lauer, who said at the end of this morning's interview: "At the risk of getting in trouble, Peter, I want to say I respect the work you've done. I respect your honesty."

Treason envy?

[Kip Lange]

One is left to wonder why, having "fired" Arnett, NBC turns around and books him to appear on the Today show.

Indeed, and ends the "apology" by having the interviewer praise his work at the "risk of getting myself in trouble".

Bleh! I just watched it, and that wasn't an apology! The man apologizes to Katie Couric FIRST? Doesn't even mention anything about possibly putting American military lives at risk? The only thing he apologized for, was, as was said earlier, tipping the hand of the antiwar movement -- "setting off this firestorm in the United States". You could hear the undertone -- Jack Nicholson shouting, "You can't HANDLE the truth!"

That wasn't an apology. That was more propaganda, peppered liberally with sub-standard CYA'ing. GRRRRRR...

[Kip Lange]

Ooo, you beat me to the quote by two minutes, dang you. :-)

[zebra 2]

You're right, of course. But it also sews discord in this country.

I saw short segments of Arnett's "interview" on Fox last night. I was struck with Arnett's tentative, "deer-in-the-headlights" look and demeanor. I got the impression that he was mouthing the Iraqis' script. Perhaps they were threatening to throw him out if he didn't toe the line. Maybe he was not being sinister, but just selling out. Either way--DISPICABLE!

[GalvestonGal.com]

I thought at first that he was being coerced. I was concerned that he or his staff were being threatened. He sounded like someone who had been captured and was spouting off to save himself.

I was listening for "hidden messages", clues that he was saying things like "helping the protestors", alluding to Bush not caring about the Iraqi people, were just a way of saving his life.

No! He seems to be free enough to give interviews to the Today show saying he shouldn't have said what he did. So it doesn't seem like he is a prisoner or anything.

He must have been really drunk to have thought that what he was saying was going to further his career. And it was about him and his former glory. Next, we will get to hear that he's checked into re-hab. He's really sorry........

[Wondervixen]

You forgot National Geographic Explorer...That's some trick, getting fired from three jobs in one day...We salute ye Peetahh!

[Howlin]

I guess he read his own press reviews?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/876164/posts

[MamaLucci]

Yes, that was my take as well. NBC was being too clever by
half, IMHO and I STILL won't watch any of their programming.

[abner]

Ping.

[united1000]

Remember this little tidbit - I read it yesterday:

 

Peter Arnett: Arnett had the last laugh on CNN, which did not renew the veteran war correspondent's contract not long ago in a cost-cutting measure. In Baghdad to do documentary work for National Geographic's cable channel, he was drafted to do some spot news reporting for MSNBC. When the first missiles and bombs struck the Iraqi capital, Arnett broke the news -- beating CNN -- and has been all over not only MSNBC but NBC as well. And when CNN's Nic Robertson and his crew were kicked out of the city, he became the most familiar face reporting from Baghdad. ``I do get perverse pleasure out of it,'' he said earlier this week. ``CNN did dump me, I thought unfairly.''

 

Is he still getting preverse pleasure out of it!  hahahaha 

 

He better swim to that little isl in the pacific, and not come back here! 

[toolbreaker]

Thanks for the video post.

His "apology" amounts to nothing more than regret for offending people. He never retracts the idiotic statements he gave in that interview that clearly aided and abetted the enemy propoganda machine.

[Republican Wildcat]

Isn't this the guy that was behind the false CNN serin gas story? They don't mention this when talking about his past "accomplishments" in these articles.

[kitkat]

***Take THREE attaboys out of petty cash!***

LOL!!!!!!