Patterico's Pontifications

8/28/2006

The Steve Centanni Kidnapping

Filed under: General — Justin Levine @ 10:38 am



[posted by Justin Levine]

As Patterico noted in timely fashion, Steve Centanni from Fox News has been released by his Palestinian kidnappers, along with cameraman Olaf Wiig.

This was the conversation I had with Centanni well over a year ago (We often ask Fox correspondents to come on the Bill Handel Show to help out with national or international news coverage that our local reporters can’t cover themselves.):

[Steve]: “Hello, this is Steve Centanni.”

[Me]: “Hey Steve. Thanks for calling in. I’m going to put you on hold, and we’ll be with you in about 3 minutes as soon as our commercial break ends. Remember, the host’s name is Bill Handel.”

[Steve]: “Great.”

That was it. The conversation was less than 20 seconds. He probably never knew my name. Certainly didn’t remember it. But that little contact alone was enough to give me the heebee-jeebees when I heard the news of his capture. The slightest personal contact with somebody changes how you look at the news when the story is about them.

Upon his release (after being forced to “convert” to Islam at gunpoint), Centanni reportedly said the following:

“I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful and kind-hearted. The world needs to know more about them. Don’t be discouraged.”

Stockholm Syndrome? Genuine heartfelt sentiment? Or perhaps just a standard reflexive PC statement from someone who works in the news biz?

He also said that he had “the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it.”

It will be interesting to see if Centanni returns to Gaza himself to continue his reporting. I suspect that would be the best indication of his true feelings on these matters.

Regredless, its good to have him back. Same with Mr. Wiig of course. But as I indicated, the slightest personal contact will give you a greater vested interest in someone’s fate when compared with people whom you’ve never met.

Meanwhile, Time Magazine has an interesting analysis on the bigger picture here.

[posted by Justin Levine]

3 Responses to “The Steve Centanni Kidnapping”

  1. Perhaps Mr. Centenni wouldn’t have as much respect for Islam (now that he renounced his conversion to the “religion”) if he knew that a fatwa has been issued against him. Once a Muslim, always a Muslim

    It’s criminal that this “conversion” has been glossed over by the mainsteam media, who are happy that the journalists were released “unharmed.”

    Stephen Johnson (24d4d1)

  2. Who issued this fatwa?

    Pablo (08e1e8)

  3. Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig are in the US and will be on Greta VS’s show tonight.

    Pablo (08e1e8)


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