February 11, 2004

Dr. Bob Arnot quits NBC

From Instapundit comes the story that respected journalist Dr. Bob Arnot has left NBC. Glenn links to a New York Observer article that says the following: bq. Dr. Arnot’s contract was up at NBC in December 2003 and, according to the network, won’t be renewed in the foreseeable future. bq. Dr. Arnot did not leave willingly. bq. Although personal, his departure has also exposed the divides over TV coverage of the war in Iraq. bq. In a 1,300-word e-mail to NBC News president Neal Shapiro, written in December 2003 and obtained by NYTV, Dr. Arnot called NBC News’ coverage of Iraq biased. He argued that keeping him in Iraq and on NBC could go far in rectifying that. Dr. Arnot told Mr. Shapiro that NBC had alienated the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad since it shot and then aired footage of correspondent Jim Miklaszewski at the scene of the November bombing of the Al Rashid Hotel, in which a C.P.A. staffer was shown injured. That incident, he wrote, "earned the undying enmity of the C.P.A." And more: Maj. Clark Taylor e-mailed NYTV from Baghdad to state that Dr. Arnot "highlighted what is really happening over here …. He generally reported positive things because, generally, that is what is happening. Of course there are occasional bad things … and he reported those as well. The fact was, he reported what he saw—which generally was positive." Of course, this will never hit the mainstream media. You need to read some of the blogs from Iraqi's and Coalition military to get an accurate picture of what's happening over there. This is a major disservice to this nation in that the people who don't really bother to find out the real story has a uniformly bad view of this situation and this is not a good thing given that we need to be strong in this ongoing battle against fanaticism, corruption and terror. Posted by DaveH at February 11, 2004 3:53 PM