Kidnapped Fox News crew:
prayers and outrage
By Michelle Malkin · August 20, 2006 03:19 PM
***scroll for updates***
Missing: Day 7
Steve Centanni reporting
I've tried to stay away from the computer and the news as much as possible during my time off, but I couldn't help checking in every day for word of Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig since their kidnapping last Monday.
I don't know Centanni at all, but have met him in passing at the green room/makeup room of Fox's D.C. bureau several times. In an industry of hyperinflated egos, Centanni always struck me as quiet, hard-working, and down-to-earth. Lots of readers e-mailed last week wondering why Centanni and Wiig's kidnapping is barely on the MSM radar screen. It's a damned good question, especially at a time when journalist Jill Carroll seems to be all over the airwaves and in every major newspaper promoting her book about her kidnapping by Iraqi terrorists last year.
I honestly don't know the answer. The most common suspicion among my readers is that bias against Fox News Channel is coming into play. Another possible factor may be Fox's own internal strategy of keeping the story low-key while it negotiates for Centanni and Wiig's release. Or is it because Centanni is not a high-profile player in the Washington media scene--not a spotlight-hogging insider or industry schmoozer?
Whatever the reason, I find the apparent apathy about Centanni and Wiig's kidnapping grossly disturbing. Centanni is not just a fellow journalist. He is a fellow American. He is missing. And there should be a hell of a lot more outrage about it than I've seen so far--from the media, from our government, from our nation.
***
Allah has video of the Centanni family's appeal for his release and has kept tabs on the story all week. Mary Katharine Ham covered here and here, with good background on Centanni and Wiig. Ms Underestimated has video of Brit Hume discussing the kidnappings.
The Washington Times reports:
At least one of the two Fox News newsmen missing in Gaza is apparently still alive, although the whereabouts of the pair remains unknown.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly told the wife of cameraman Olaf Wiig during a personal meeting late last week that her husband is alive and well, the Dominion Post reported Sunday. Wiig's wife, New Zealand broadcaster Anita McNaught, was in the Middle East to help with the diplomatic efforts to secure the release of her husband and Fox correspondent Steve Centanni.
"She met with Abbas and was sitting on a chair right beside him when he assured her that Olaf was alive and well," Wiig's father, the Rev. Roger Wiig, told the Sunday Star-Times. "I think he had assurances from some groups who say they know that." It remains unclear exactly who grabbed the missing men nearly a week ago while on assignment in Gaza City. The major Palestinian militant groups have all denied responsibility.
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