The Daily Background

As you may have heard, according to reports, two Fox News employees (one of whom was Fox correspondent Steve Centanni) have been kidnapped in Gaza. This is of course very bad, and whoever kidnaps journalists ought to be punished. Along with the rest of the world, I hope sincerely that they will be released soon and unharmed. Not a whole lot is known at this point, but here’s what we do know about the situation.

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Fox has confirmed the reports, and through an internal memo (now leaked), it has ordered its employees not to comment on the situation and to pray for the two men.

Coverage of the situation will likely be fairly quiet. As you might remember from the Jill Carrol kidnapping earlier this year, her publication Christian Science Monitor sent out a request to all major news organizations asking not to talk about the kidnapping in hopes that she would be released alive. She was released several weeks later, only to the harsh attacks of right-wingers.

It is not known however if Fox has sent out a request to other media outlets like the Christian Science Monitor did, nor if Fox’s request would be honored with any degree to which CSM’s was. Associated Press for example, which sat out reporting Carrol’s kidnapping along with many other news agencies, has already run a wire story on the Fox kidnappings.

It is also important to note that in Iraq news of kidnappings by insurgents are often virtual death notices, whereas in Gaza they are decidedly less decided, as AP’s wire story notes:

Several foreigners have been kidnapped in Gaza in recent months with their abductors demanding jobs from the Palestinian Authority or the release of people being held in Palestinian jails. All those kidnapped have been released within hours without harm.

Another thing that’s important to take into consideration is the current situation in Gaza. While a ceasefire has been established in the Israeli and Hezbollah war, the Israeli military has seemingly stepped up attacks on Gaza, where it bombed a refugee camp yesterday, reportedly killing three people. The Israeli military claims that the refugee camp was used by militants to fire two small homemade rockets into Israel, killing no-one.

The Israeli military claims that the militants who fired the rockets escaped “right before” the Israeli military bombed the refugee camp, killing three family members including a teenage boy.

This is what Fox correspondent Centanni was talking about on in the last report only hours before he was abducted. only hours Video here.

Filed under: Middle East Crisis, Z-TDB Blog