Free Republic

What are we seeing when we watch events from the Middle East on our television screens? Is it news or is it terrorist theater? Let us observe two media events which occurred on Sunday in Gaza. Sunday afternoon released hostages and Fox News journalists Steven Centanni and Olaf Wiig spoke before the cameras. The fact of their release and their statements were reported by more than 1,000 news organizations throughout the world. At the press conference, Centanni and Wiig, who were forced by their Palestinian captors to convert to Islam, praised the Palestinians. Centanni said, "I just hope this never...

Two Fox News journalists freed by militants Sunday described a harrowing two weeks of captivity during which they were blindfolded, tied in painful positions and forced at gunpoint to say on a video that they converted to Islam. After their release, the men met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and left Gaza, but first appealed at a brief news conference for foreign journalists not to be deterred from covering the plight of the Palestinians in the volatile coastal strip. "I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The first thing Olaf Wiig told his family after militants released him in the Gaza Strip Sunday was that he was sorry he'd worried them, relatives said. "His first comment was that he was sorry he had put us through that," the Fox News cameraman's father, the Rev. Roger Wiig, told reporters in New Zealand. "We are glad to hear his voice and his concerns straight away," Wiig said. "It's been a long and difficult wait," he said. The reverend said his son, 36, told him by telephone from Gaza that he had "recognized it...

FOX News journalists Steve Centanni and veteran cameraman Olaf Wiig were released by a Palestinian terrorist group early Sunday morning. Centanni, 60, and Wiig, 36, were abducted on August 14th and held captive for 14 days somewhere in Gaza, south of Israel. In an interview with FOX, Centanni said himself, Wiig and a so-called security man were ambushed by a group which consisted of four hooded gunmen. For the first week of Centanni's and Wiig's captivity, there was a virtual news blackout regarding this case with little or no reports on the subject coming from FOX News or any other...

Kidnapped Fox reporters "convert to Islam" on video Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:20 AM EDT By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Two kidnapped journalists for the American Fox News Channel appeared on a new videotape released by their captors on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, saying they had converted to Islam. Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Seyam said efforts were under way to secure the release of Fox correspondent Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American, and New Zealand-born cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, within hours. Both journalists appeared to be in good health in the new video. They were seized on August 14...

GAZA (Reuters) - Two kidnapped Fox journalists appeared on a new videotape released by their captors on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, in which the reporters said they had converted to Islam, the Fox News Channel said. Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Seyam said efforts were under way to secure within hours the release of Fox correspondent Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American, and New Zealand-born cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36. Both journalists appeared to be in good health in the new video. They were seized on August 14. They were shown separately sitting cross-legged, reading a statement which Fox said was an...

On the face of it, conversion to Islam would appear to provide a painless escape device for any hostage who happens to fall into fundamentalist terrorist hands. After all, once free, the hostage can always revert to his real faith or non-faith. It is hard to blame the two Fox News journalists, the American Steve Centanni, 60, and the New Zealander, Olaf Wiig, 36, for taking that path on to buy their way out of an uncertain fate at the hands of Palestinian terrorists – especially as they later reported they were forced to make the gesture at gunpoint. And,...

Perhaps I am misreading what I have seen on Fox News, or perhaps I am getting too cynical in my old age. Perhaps not. Is anyone else being struck by the "oddness" of this whole scenario? As I watched the men being rushed into the building and as they met with the head of the Palestinian Authority and as they were dragged out for their "press conference" (Mrs. BBC Wiig's big moment) I couldn't help noticing the dearth of western faces. I also noticed Wiig's reaction to being grabbed by several Palestinian "officials" and his yelling "Get off!". My immediate...

Per Fox News

Palestinian officials said today they expected to have “good news” about the two Fox News journalists kidnapped in Gaza City within two days and believe they are unharmed. The journalists, American correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, of Washington, DC, and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, who has family in West Sussex, were seized in Gaza City on August 14. Their captors demanded the release of all Muslims imprisoned by the US by midnight today, in exchange for freeing the pair. The kidnappers, a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades, did not say what it would do to...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Wednesday he would lead an ecumenical delegation to the Middle East this week to meet with political and religious leaders about troubles in the region, including the kidnapping of two Fox News journalists. Jackson, the veteran civil rights leader and head of his Chicago-based Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said the group would leave Friday night for meetings in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. He declined to release his planned itinerary because of security concerns. "We had been working with the Middle Eastern Council of Churches, but couldn't get in earlier because of the bombings," Jackson said. He said...

Bob Laurence, TV critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune, sent a letter to Romenesko setting forth a couple of reasons for the scant coverage given to the kidnapping in Gaza of two Fox News journalists (via Michelle): ... Fox has deliberately set itself apart from other news media. Starting at the top with Roger Ailes, the Fox sales pitch has been to deride other media, to declare itself the one source of the real truth, the sole source of 'fair and accurate' news reporting. As a result, there's not a reservoir of kinship or good will with Fox on the part of the rest...

Video of kidnapped journalists released A previously unknown Palestinian group released the first video Wednesday of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men, a Palestinian news agency reported. In the video, Steve Centanni, 60, of the San Francisco area, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, appeared to be in good health, seated on the floor in sweat suits against a black background. No armed men were shown. "Our captors are treating us well," Centanni said, adding that they had access to clean...

The cameraman, Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, and American reporter Steve Centanni, 60, were taken Monday from their TV van near the Palestinian security services headquarters. Major militant groups in Gaza have denied involvement and the kidnappers have yet to make any demands.