Posted on 10/26/2006 1:50:25 PM PDT by tobyhill
Thursday's Howard Kurtz profile of NBC Baghdad correspondent Richard Engel in the Washington Post has a real clash of perspectives. First, NBC anchor Brian Williams claimed Engel "is the most agenda-less person I've met in our business." Then Engel declared "I think war should be illegal...I'm basically a pacifist." The story included no critics of Engel's reporting, but praise from Williams and CBS colleague Lara Logan, and Engel's mother.
Williams asserted that Engel's reporting was fearless against annoying media critics: "In an era of instant media criticism, he calls balls and strikes in the middle of a war zone," says NBC anchor Brian Williams. "He is completely unbothered by any Web site that may have problems with his reporting while he's over in Iraq dodging bullets....He is the most agenda-less person I've met in our business, I think, in the past 20 years."
Does it sound a little like Williams is saying Internet media critics should shut up and go fight in Iraq before they can have an authoritative opinion? It's certainly easy for Engel to seem unbothered by critics in a Post story that never asks a media critic of any stripe for an opinion. Here's the context for Engel's declaration of pacifism:
Why does he stay? When NBC made Engel its Middle East bureau chief over the summer, he agreed to a new contract and moved to the relative calm of Beirut. Days later he found himself covering a fierce war between Israel and Hezbollah -- and was suddenly reenergized. This, for better or worse, is what he does. Not that Engel necessarily approves of military conflict.
"I think war should be illegal," he says. "I'm basically a pacifist."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Kill him, he is in the way.
When you figure out how to enforce that one without breaking the same law then I'm right there with ya buddy...really.
War should be illegal. OK smart guy. If someone breaks the law your stupid ass wants, what do you do? Crawl away? Go cry to mommy? Wage war on them? Submoron.
We nicknamed him Pretty Chicken during the invasion ....we seem to have picked the right one.
We can then assume he would have allowed the Axis to rampage unfettered during WW2, yes?
Take the them to the International Courts and let them die of old age.
I'M a pacifist. Mr. Engel is a 'surrenderist'.
Talk about bias! NBC should move him out of there yesterday.
Anyone who has seen the horror of tripping and falling as I have would know that it is time to end the madness.
Naaaaahhhhhh, he'da hauled their butts into court!
Sometimes this World is stranger than I think it strange.
All joking aside, that sentence is a contender for "Stupidest Statement In The History Of The World".
"I think war should be illegal"
OK...you surrender first.
Yep.
"He was always such a clever little boy, perfect in every way..."
OK, Bin Laddie called it all,,,,didn't he????????
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