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Anarchists for Obama. Seriously. NBC’s Richard Engel, fresh off his Peabody Award, reported the heart-warming news on Hardball today from London, where he mixed and mingled with the anarchist crowd during today’s demonstration. RICHARD ENGEL: I spent today on the streets of London, I was in those demonstrations–not taking part, covering them–that were in London’s equivalent of Wall Street, and what was very interesting was that although this was an anti-capitalist demonstration–people were angry about corporate greed, and there some scuffles, smashing up the Royal Bank of Scotland, some of their windows–it was not an anti-American sentiment in any way....

NBC Nightly News did a despicable job of editing an interview with President Bush and Richard Engel. To watch an interview with Karl Rove click here. To contact NBC, write nightly@nbc.com.

Judging by the excerpt Tucker Carlson played on his MSNBC show this afternoon at about 4:15 PM ET, Richard Engel's War Zone Diary is a powerful and moving documentary of the NBC reporter's experiences in Iraq. To his credit. Engel has accompanied troops on many combat patrols. Among other clips, we saw particularly compelling footage Marines on a night mission in the mean streets of Ramadi, in Anbar province, searching for - and finding unharmed - one of their comrades who had gotten separated during an earlier patrol there. Speaking of combat, Engel even mentioned at one point that "it...

Reporting for the Tuesday edition of CNN’s "Newsroom," correspondent Arwa Damon labeled Saddam Hussein’s execution "an act of sheer revenge" and predicted it would have only negative consequences. Damon now joins NBC reporter Richard Engel who last week also described the death of the tyrant as "revenge." Additionally, Ms. Damon characterized the grainy cell phone footage of Hussein’s death as "chilling" and noted that onlookers "taunted" Saddam. The CNN reporter suggested that the execution of the former Iraqi leader would further split the country apart: Arwa Damon: "With Shia chants defining Saddam Hussein's last moments, it turns his execution into...

Remember how MSMers such as Tim Russert recently taunted President Bush for claiming that Al Qaeda is behind much of the violence in Iraq? Well, this morning comes a report from a certified MSM source lending credence to W's assertion. NBC's Richard Engel, who nobody would confuse with a Bush administration defender and who only yesterday was deploring the execution of Saddam as "primitive and vindictive," appeared on this morning's "Today" to discuss the aftermath of Saddam's death.Asked host Lester Holt: "Lots of concern that there would be a violent response to the execution from Saddam loyalists, supporters. What...

This morning's "Today" show characterized the execution of Saddam Hussein in generally negative terms. According to NBC reporter Richard Engel, reporting from Baghdad: "The Iraqi government is now going to great lengths to say that this execution was carried out with the utmost respect for human rights; that it was a very organized, precise event. However, interviews that we've conducted with witnesses, judges and other people who attended and followed all the proceedings say it was much more emotional and chaotic." Continued Engel: "The execution was primitive and vindictive. " Engel stated that the site of the execution was one...

As reported here, in a story airing on 'Today' of October 28th, NBC reporter Richard Engel delved into the most private concerns of US soldiers serving in Iraq. Engel queried one solider about his fears of dying in combat, or as he put it: "You ever worry one day your number's gonna come up?"Engel also drew soldiers out on their concerns as to the faithfulness of their loved ones back home, inviting them to discuss "the Jody," described by one soldier as "the guy who is back home with your wife or your girlfriend." Added Engel: "They worry and tell...

Special Gloat and Quote Edition: Media's Erroneous Predictions Though more fighting lies ahead and there are certainly still pockets of Saddam Hussein loyalists who pose a threat to our troops, the jubilant crowds filling Baghdad streets today, culminating in the toppling of a huge Hussein statue downtown, certainly undermines and contradicts much of the fearmongering and dire forecasts advanced by the media about Iraqis supporting Hussein and being willing to take up guns themselves to defend him.Since time is of the essence as I wanted to get this out before the end of the business day in the East,...

While it only lasted about three weeks, the second Gulf War was an unqualified success. Jubilant Iraqis danced in the streets as U.S. military forces rolled into the center of Baghdad, while the dictator Saddam Hussein and his evil cohorts were, as General Tommy Franks put it on April 11, either dead or “running like hell.”      So what about TV coverage of the war? While the media covered many aspects of the war fairly well — reports from embedded journalists were refreshingly factual and were mostly devoid of commentary — television’s war coverage was plagued by the same problems...

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...

There was a stunning bit of candor from NBC reporter Richard Engel at the end of his report on this morning's 'Today' on the situation in Iraq:Speaking with US soliders, Engel reported: "They believe insurgents are intensifying attacks against US soldiers to influence November's mid-term elections." Shouldn't it give Americans pause to consider that in the eyes of our men on the ground, our enemy wants to see the Democrats take power? Perhaps George Soros will sponsor a new MTV series: 'Rocket-Grenade The Vote'.Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY. Webcasts and podcasts of Mark's award-winning TV show...

by Mark Finkelstein August 10, 2006 - 08:52 That truth is the first casualty of war has been borne home by the proliferating scandal of photographs of the current Middle East crisis doctored so as to portray Israel in the worst possible light. At this point, can we look at any image from the area without a good dose of doubt? Take this morning's report on the Today show. NBC's Richard Engel, in Tyre, Lebanon, reported that: "The fighting has made humanitarian relief efforts almost impossible. Israel has cut roads and attacked vehicles, isolating Hezbollah and everyone else." This was...

by Mark Finkelstein July 31, 2006 - 16:02 NBC reporter Richard Engel sure has some severely selective sources. On the one hand, he's overflowing with information reinforcing the image of Hezbollah as a kindly humanitarian organization that was providing "supplies and relief" to the residents of Qana. On the other hand, he has "no evidence" that Hezbollah was using Qana residents as human shields for purposes of launching rockets. Engel reported live from Tyre in southern Lebanon during this afternoon's 'The Most' on MSNBC, with host Alison Stewart. Speaking of events in Qana, Engel claimed: "I got no indication [the...

by Mark Finkelstein on July 14, 2006 - 08:26. Israel might be defending itself on two fronts this morning, but that might not be enough. The Today show was attacking on at least three. And in a brief but telling moment, Andrea Mitchell gave away the blame-Israel game with a spontaneous shake of the head. Here's the gist of Today's reporting: * Israel's offensive against Hezbollah is based on a 'pretext.' * The Bush administration has dropped the diplomatic ball. It should have sent higher-level people in to mediate sooner. In the meantime, despite the concerns of America's European allies,...

by Mark Finkelstein June 13, 2006 You can almost imagine Chris Matthews wracking his brain as the minutes counted down to Hardball hitting the air this evening. He couldn't permit Pres. Bush's surprise trip to Iraq to stand as an unalloyed triumph. Was Matthews bouncing possible lines off his producers and assistants? In any case, Chris gave it his best Holy Cross try. Opening the show, he mused: "The bravado of visiting Baghdad helps Bush, but does it hurt Iraq's new Prime Minister to have the American president look like a boss on an inspection tour?" Matthews ran the same...

The future of television, or so we are so often told, is about video on demand, movies on cell phones and full integration with the Internet. Well, it seems to see that future we need to look no further than Baghdad. An Iraqi friend of mine today showed off his new cell phone, with a slick two-inch screen and full video capability. He showed me his home movies. Video one: Severed head of a suicide bomber The head was intact except for a few front teeth that were missing. The head was on the ground, surrounded by a huddle of...

by Mark Finkelstein March 23, 2006 Call it the Ingraham Effect. Two days after Laura Ingraham sent shockwaves through the MSM with a Today show appearance in which she charged that the media accentuate the negative in their Iraqi coverage, and just the day after a palpably stung Today responded with a segment defending its coverage, Today led its show this morning . . . with good news from Iraq. To be sure, Today would under any circumstances have covered the freeing of three self-styled Christian peace activists. Story here. But would Today have otherwise highlighted the story in the...

by Mark Finkelstein March 22, 2006 Laura Ingraham clearly hit an MSM sore spot with the charges she levelled during her appearance on yesterday's Today show, in which she locked horns with David Gregory and James Carville. Read Laura in the Lions Den. Ingraham accused most American media of covering Iraq from their balconies in the Green Zone, confining their reports largely to IEDs and killings and missing the more positive stories that abound across the country. This morning, a clearly stung NBC asked itself whether it is doing a good job reporting on Iraq, and - surprise! - the...

     NBC's Richard Engel conceded on Tuesday's Today that he rarely gets to report on the heroics of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, but he did this one time because those heroics saved him. Recounting how the Army unit with whom he was traveling came under attack, Engel noted how a soldier "actually stepped right in front of me protecting me with his body and started to return fire at the insurgents. And I just remember thinking that this is one of the small acts of heroism, I think you can say, that I so rarely get a chance to see...

NEW YORK - NBC News has swooped in and signed Richard Engel, a former freelancer who became one of ABC's most visible war correspondents when he stayed in Baghdad while other reporters left. Engel, 29, will begin reporting for NBC from Baghdad in early May, the network said Wednesday. In the days before the war, ABC, NBC and CBS all pulled reporters from Baghdad, concerned about their safety, and didn't send them back until American troops reached the Iraqi capital. Engel, a freelancer, decided to stay. Despite inexperience that occasionally manifested itself as boyish enthusiasm, Engel was used frequently on...