Don't Go Against The Propoganda Machine

Or you'll pay the price.

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Arnett Fired for Iraqi TV Interview


By Verne Gay
Staff Writer

March 31, 2003, 8:44 AM EST


NBC News has fired Baghdad-based reporter Peter Arnett for comments he made during an interview he conducted with Iraqi state TV over the weekend, in which he claimed the U.S. war strategy had "failed" and that the Bush administration had "underestimated the determination" of Iraq.

NBC's decision to sever its ties with Arnett , who had been freelancing for NBC News and MSNBC, and had also been reporting for National Geographic Explorer, appeared to reverse an earlier decision to stick by Arnett, when the network had praised his reporting and defended his remarks as analytical.

Nevertheless, just prior to an interview on this morning's edition of "The Today Show," host Matt Lauer read a network statement which said Arnett "was wrong to discuss his personal observations and therefore he will no longer be reporting for NBC and MSNBC."

Arnett, during the Lauer interview, then went on to to apologize to NBC News, saying, "I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgement [but] I said essentially what we all know about the war, delays about implementing, but clearly by giving that interview I created a firestorm and for that I am trully sorry."

Arnett's Iraqi interivew, which he described as "improptu," first aired on Iraqi TV yesterday morning at 4:30 a.m., Eastern time, reportedly amidst other programming that praised Saddam Hussein.

Arnett told the interviewer, "I think American policy and strategy is weakest when it comes to the Iraqi people. The U.S. administration is concernred with the possibility of killing civilians because the international community is very concerned about the Iraqi people. President Bush says he is concerned about the Iraqi people but if Iraqi people are dying in numbers, then American policy will be challenged very strongly." He also said, "clearly the American war planners misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces. I've been here many times and in my commentaries on television I would tell the Americans about the determination of the Iraqi forces, the determination of the government, and the willingness to fight for their country. But me and others who felt the same way were not listened to by the Bush administration."

Both Fox News and CNN immediately attacked Arnett's remarks last night, although NBC, while not supportive, seemed to distance itself from them. But as of last night, it appeared he would hold his job.

Arnett, along with ABC freelancer Richard Engel, is one of just two reporters in Baghdad who are still filing for U.S.-based networks. CNN's production team left the city last weekend, while CBS and ABC had pulled their full-time reporters out earlier. Indeed, Arnett was the first to report on U.S. TV that the war over Baghdad had started on the night of March 19; in 1991, he and a CNN team had also provided the only real-time coverage of the opening hours of the airwar over Baghdad.

Nevertheless, Arnett has been a controversial figure in the past. During the first war in the Gulf he was criticized by the U.S. for reporting on what it termed Iraqi propaganda. (He was later fired by CNN for his role in a controversial documentary that alleged the use of poison gas by the U.S. in Laos during the Vietnam war.) Also, during the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson privately seethed over Arnett dispatches. Working for the Associated Press, Arnett was considered the dean of reporters in Vietnam: He remained there throughout the war, and his reporting alternately embarrassed and infuratiated both the Johnson and Nixon administrations. But he was also widely admired for his work by the journalism establishment and won a Pulitzer Prize.

New Zealand-born Arnett , who is now an American citizen, was asked by Lauer what he planned to do next. Arnett said, "there's a small island in the South Pacific, uninhabited, which I'll try to swim to. I'll leave Baghdad. I'm not a supporter of the Iraqi government . I came here to report [and] now that I can't report, I'll leave. I'm embarrassed to have questioned the judgement of your company."
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