Bigtime h/t to Kossack Drocedus!
NBC Correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin Is Returned to Gaza
By BILL CARTER
New York Times
JULY 18, 2014
Only days after NBC removed him from its coverage of the fighting in Gaza, the correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin will be reinstated and sent back into the region, the network said Friday evening.
The decision to pull Mr. Mohyeldin off the story, after he witnessed an Israeli air attack that killed four young Palestinians and then posted remarks on Twitter about it, prompted a round of questions, and much criticism of NBC among Internet commenters. Some accused the network of reacting to pressure from the Israeli side of the conflict. Mr. Mohyeldin is an Egyptian-American who previously worked for the cable news channel Al Jazeera English…
As noted in
my own post here at Daily Kos, on Thursday, the
NYT report continues:
“When it removed Mr. Mohyeldin, NBC did not give a reason for its decision, which was first reported by the news sites TVNewser and The Intercept, other than unspecified security concerns.”
On Friday, NBC declined to give any explanation — official or not — for the sudden decision to send Mr. Mohyeldin back into Gaza. In a statement, NBC said only that its “deployments were constantly reassessed” in the region. Social-networking sites have given reporters in war zones the ability to immediately communicate their experiences. But those communications have also been closely examined by readers looking for bias.
In a Twitter posting on Friday evening Mr. Mohyeldin wrote: “Thanks for all the support. I’m returning to #Gaza to report. Proud of NBC’s continued commitment to cover the #Palestinian side of the story.”
# # #
Very brief statement from NBC…
NBC News statement: Ayman Mohyeldin back to Gaza
Statement from an NBC News spokesperson:
"Ayman Mohyeldin has done extraordinary reporting throughout the escalation of the conflict in Gaza, filing 25+ reports over the past 17 days, including his invaluable and well-documented contribution to the story on the deaths of the four Palestinian children on Wednesday. As with any news team in conflict zones, deployments are constantly reassessed. We've carefully considered our deployment decisions and we will be sending Ayman back to Gaza over the weekend. We look forward to his contributions in the coming days."
# # #
Media contacts
For more information contact:
Erika Masonhall
NBC News
e: erika.masonhall@nbcuni.com
# # #
Most of the background--with four pertinent updates--on this story’s available in my post here, from Thursday (see: "Intercept: NBC News Pulls Top Reporter from Gaza After He Witnesses Israeli Attack on Children").
Among the many social media conversations (apart from the original breaking stories at TVNewser and The Intercept), basic facts and action items, I’d note the following (above and beyond internal pressure from key people inside NBC) as being the most persuasive matters leading to this evening’s positive result:
• First and foremost, Mohyeldin’s overall record of many years of personal commitment to the story, supported by his stellar reporting
• A major, trending Twitter movement over the past 48 hours, which started here:
#LetAymanReport
(A good place to review much of the follow-up commentary on tonight's story, too!)
• Two substantial petition drives:
– Jewish Voice for Peace: Reinstate Ayman Mohyeldin
– Change.org: End Censorship, Bring Back Ayman Mohyeldin to Report From Gaza
# # #