] The sacking of Peter Arnett by NBC for appearing on Iraqi
] television is just one sign of the enhanced sensitivity
] of the American news media to charges of being
] unpatriotic as the Iraq war enters its third week.
]
] Mr Arnett was not the first reporter sacked for his war
] coverage. Last Friday, Phil Smucker, a Christian Science
] Monitor reporter, was escorted to the Kuwait border after
] Marines charged he was revealing sensitive information
] about the location of troops while broadcasting.
]
] And Fox News celebrity correspondent Geraldo Rivera, who
] was with the 101st Airborne Division, was asked to leave
] Iraq on Monday by the US military for the same reason;
] Fox reportedly said it was looking into the matter.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Analysis: US media under fire

] Michael Moore's anti-war speech at this week's Oscars
] made his website the most visited political site, in a
] week where traffic to political websites rocketed by 16%
] in response to the invasion of Iraq.
]
]
]
] According to Hitwise, 16% of hits on MichaelMoore.com
] came from Google, after British viewers saw the comedian
] and satirist making his "shame on you, Mr Bush" speech
] when he collected the best documentary award for 'Bowling
] for Columbine'. The site captured nearly 8% of the market
] share, and figures show that 6.27% of visitors bookmarked
] the site.

Michael Moore's anti-war Oscar speech drives web traffic

] Madonna has pulled the controversial video for her latest
] single following criticism that it was "un-American".
]
] The video for American Life, due to be shown on US
] television later this week, showed the pop superstar
] dressed in combat uniform and throwing a grenade at a
] President Bush lookalike.

Madonna dumps 'un-American' video

] NEAR KARBALA, Iraq, March 31 -- As an unidentified
] four-wheel-drive vehicle came barreling toward an
] intersection held by troops of the Army's 3rd Infantry
] Division, Capt. Ronny Johnson grew increasingly alarmed.
] From his position at the intersection, he was heard
] radioing to one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley
] Fighting Vehicles to alert it to what he described as a
] potential threat.
]
] "Fire a warning shot," he ordered as the vehicle kept
] coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the
] platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its
] radiator. "Stop [messing] around!" Johnson yelled into
] the company radio network when he still saw no action
] being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice,
] "Stop him, Red 1, stop him!"
]
] That order was immediately followed by the loud reports
] of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon's
] Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all.
]
] "Cease fire!" Johnson yelled over the radio. Then, as he
] peered into his binoculars from the intersection on
] Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, "You just
] [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a
] warning shot soon enough!"

A Gruesome Scene on Highway 9 (washingtonpost.com)

] US broadcaster NBC has sacked celebrated journalist Peter
] Arnett after he gave an interview on Iraqi television
] saying the US-led coalition's initial war plan had
] failed.
]
] NBC said on Monday: "It was wrong for Mr Arnett to grant
] an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at
] a time of war.
]
] "And it was wrong for him to discuss personal
] observations and opinions in that interview."
]
] Within hours of his dismissal, Arnett was hired by the
] Daily Mirror, a UK tabloid newspaper strongly opposed to
] the war in Iraq.

Arnett hired by UK AntiWar Daily Mirror Pub

] On the eve of a fence-mending trip to Europe and Turkey,
] Colin Powell has ratcheted up pressure on Syria and Iran,
] hinting that if they did not change their ways, they too
] would come under intense pressure from Washington, after
] the war with Iraq was won.
]
] Mr Powell leaves today for Ankara, then EU and Nato
] headquarters in Brussels, in a personal bid to ease
] strains between the United States and some of its
] alliance partners over the Iraq campaign.
]
] He will be trying to to defuse tensions with Turkey after
] the latter refused permission for the US to launch a
] second front against Baghdad from its territory.

Powell flies out with a post-war warning for Syria and Iran

] At 68, he might be too old to be the next Scud stud, but
] as the only NBC-affiliated correspondent left in Baghdad,
] Peter Arnett couldn't be hotter.
]
] Tuesday, Arnett spoke by phone for more than an hour from
] his room in the Palestine Hotel with U.S.-based media
] reporters. The veteran war correspondent, who became a
] household name in 1991 while reporting from Baghdad for
] CNN, acknowledged taking "a perverse pleasure" in finding
] himself at the center of a story CNN, which dumped him
] four years ago in the wake of the Tailwind scandal, can
] no longer cover.
]
] Arnett works for MSNBC's "National Geographic Explorer"
] but turns up regularly on NBC ("for me, it's a blast to
] be on Tom Brokaw's show"). With the sound of what he said
] were U.S. B52s buzzing in the background, he talked about
] the impending battle for Baghdad.

Peter Arnett relishes role as NBC's man in Baghdad

] Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Peter Arnett is
] accustomed to the sounds of war.
]
] "It was horrendous, it was thunderous," Arnett says of
] this war's first waves of Baghdad bombing. "But the point
] is, it was a half-mile away."
]
] For him, that's a comfort zone. By his own count, Arnett,
] 68, is covering his 20th war.
]
] "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," he said Tuesday,
] by phone from his $40-a-day hotel room in Baghdad. "I
] like being at the big story."
]
] Now he's busy again. Sent to Iraq to do features for
] "National Geographic Explorer," Arnett has instead been
] featured on NBC and MSNBC. He remains in Baghdad %u2014
] even though his old network, CNN, was expelled.
]
] "It is particularly ironic because CNN is not here,"
] Arnett says. "I do get a perverse pleasure out of it."
]
] In 1991, CNN was still struggling for attention. It had
] Arnett, Bernard Shaw and John Holliman in Baghdad when
] the first Persian Gulf War began.
]
] "Peter (was) the best war reporter of his generation,"
] Reese Schonfeld, a CNN founder, wrote in "Me and Ted
] Against the World" (HarperCollins, $26). "All of them
] (were) in the right place at the right time ... CNN
] caught lightning in a bottle."
]
] Those three reported live for the first 17 hours of the
] 1991 war. Arnett stayed on, winning a Pulitzer Prize and
] propelling CNN to

Reporter Peter Arnett, 68, covering his 20th war

] CNN's firing of Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Price winning
] journalist who achieved international acclaim for his
] on-the-spot reporting from Baghdad during the Gulf War,
] sheds further light on the subordination of the US media
] to the military and intelligence establishment.
]
] CNN announced on Tuesday it had agreed to a settlement
] with Arnett, who has worked for the network for 18 years,
] to terminate his employment two and a half years in
] advance of the expiration of his current contract. The
] network's statement came one day after Arnett told the
] press that CNN had rejected his request to report on the
] current war from Belgrade, and had effectively muzzled
] him since last July.
]
] Arnett received a Pulitzer in 1966 for his work as an
] Associated Press reporter in Vietnam. By the time of the
] Gulf War he had become CNN's premier international
] correspondent. He came under criticism at that time from
] government and military circles for his objective
] reportage of civilian casualties resulting from the US
] bombing of Baghdad.

Pentagon pressure behind CNN firing of Peter Arnett

] Veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett, the last Western
] television reporter to cover the gulf war from Baghdad,
] is back in the Iraqi capital on assignment for National
] Geographic EXPLORER television (more details). Arnett
] recently spoke with National Geographic News about life
] in a nation solidly focused in crosshairs of
] international attention.
]
] Do the Iraqi people see war as a foregone conclusion? Or
] are they hopeful of some other outcome?
]
] The people of Iraq base their views of the current
] situation largely on Iraqi government media programs and
] commentary. Government officials are very critical of the
] U.S. and U.K. war plans, and declare that the defensive
] forces are ready to resist. On the other hand, government
] media emphasizes that Iraq has nothing to hide from the
] world and believes "sensible" decisions by the UN will
] prevent attack. Certainly Saddam Hussein is counting on
] his European "allies" of France and Germany to delay or
] eventually avoid war.

In Iraq: Reporter Peter Arnett's View From the Ground