It did not take NBC News long to reverse their decision to pull reporter Ayman Mohyeldin from Gaza just days after he covered the Israeli missile attack on a beach that killed four young boys playing soccer. I don't know whether this decision was due to public pressure to allow Mohyeldin to continue reporting from the region, but it's welcome news.
NBC News Correspondent Is Returning To Gaza Days After He Was Pulled:
NBC News is sending foreign correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin back to Gaza days after he was abruptly and mysteriously pulled from the region.
In a statement issued Friday, a network spokesperson praised Mohyeldin's "extraordinary reporting" and said that, after re-assessing the situation, the correspondent will resume his coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
"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."
NBC was pilloried by many journalists after network executives removed Mohyeldin from the region earlier this week, a decision that came immediately after the reporter provided powerful, first-hand accounts on Twitter of the Wednesday beach bombing in Gaza that left four young boys dead. [...]
Mohyeldin broke his Twitter silence on Friday night, expressing gratitude for the support he received. He did not respond to TPM's request for comment.
I haven't seen Mohyeldin on the air yet, but he's been Tweeting from Gaza again as of this Sunday morning.
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