Dr. Bob Arnot’s Parting Shot (Fired from NBC?)

[Sticky]

Feb 11, 2004
by Joe Hagan (New York Observer)

Bob Arnot, the medical doctor turned foreign correspondent for MSNBC and NBC News - The onetime chief medical correspondent "Dr. Bob" on NBC News, who has been filing prickly, Geraldo-like dispatches from Iraq—has been conspicuously absent from TV lately. Dr. Arnot’s contract was up at NBC in December 2003 and, according to the network, won’t be renewed in the foreseeable future.

Dr. Arnot did not leave willingly.

snip>

NBC sources said that when the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad, Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw declined to put Dr. Arnot on the air, even though he was the sole NBC reporter on the scene.


Instead, Mr. Brokaw aired a British reporter from a news agency called ITN. "They used ITN, their British affiliate … rather than someone on the NBC payroll," said the NBC staffer. "They don’t use his reporting because they don’t trust his reporting."

snip>

While Dr. Arnot’s fitness as a reporter may be under scrutiny, his criticism of NBC News does go to the heart of an ongoing issue in this election season, the media perception of the war in Iraq. On Sunday, Feb. 8, when Tim Russert asked President Bush on NBC’s Meet the Press if the administration had miscalculated "how we would be treated and received in Iraq," Mr. Bush’s responded that he disagreed with the premise of the question: "Well, I think we are welcomed in Iraq. I’m not exactly sure, given the tone of your questions, we’re not."


More:
http://observer.com/pages/nytv.asp

[Sticky]

1. I remember watching this guy, thinking....

what an idiot! Bombs are falling and exploding all around him while he talks about a school opening for Iraqi girls.

What made his report even more incredible was that the story was almost totally false - It was an old school re-opening after it had been decimated by Shock and Awe, not a new school built and provided by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

[TennesseeWalker]

2. With all that whining, it seems like Arnot would be perfect for FOX. (n/t)

[JHKaplan]

3. The Reporters

In my opinion we should automatically suspect ANY network or cable news reporter given the media whore corporatization rove-intimidation climate of our socalled news media. Any reporter or "correspondent" who makes it on air these days I have to believe HAD to promise his rightwing bona fides to his employers before that could happen.

[Sticky]

4. Christianne Amanpour said as much

in the interview she gave to CNBC. Took a lot of crtiticism for it too.

[bushwakker]

5. How long 'til he's on Fox?

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. I don't think the media will follow the repugs blindly much longer

The corporations control the message and if anything they are pragmatic. Once they suspect bush could loose the whitehouse he will be dropped like a hot potato knowing all too well that they are going to have to deal with a democratic administration when pushing thieir agenda.
I see it beginning to happen now.