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A former "Dateline NBC" correspondent claims that in the aftermath of September 11, the network diverted him from reporting on al Qaeda and instead wanted him to ride along with the country's "forgotten heroes," firefighters.
John Hockenberry, who was laid off from "Dateline" in early 2005, wrote in this month's Technology Review that on the Sunday after the September 2001 attacks he was pitching stories on the origins of al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism. He claimed that then-NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker, who came into a meeting Hockenberry was having with "Dateline" executive producer David Corvo, said "Dateline" should instead focus on the firefighters and perhaps ride along with them a la "Cops," the Fox reality series.
According to Hockenberry, Zucker said "that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine."
John Hockenberry, who was laid off from "Dateline" in early 2005, wrote in this month's Technology Review that on the Sunday after the September 2001 attacks he was pitching stories on the origins of al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism. He claimed that then-NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker, who came into a meeting Hockenberry was having with "Dateline" executive producer David Corvo, said "Dateline" should instead focus on the firefighters and perhaps ride along with them a la "Cops," the Fox reality series.
According to Hockenberry, Zucker said "that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine."
Another bombshell is Hockenberry's claims that General Electric, NBC's parent company, discouraged him from talking to the Bin Laden family about their estranged family member. Hockenberry asked GE, which does business with the Bin Laden family company, to help him get in contact with them. Instead, a PR executive called Hockenberry's hotel room in Saudi Arabia and read a statement about how GE didn't see its "valuable business relationship" with the Bin Laden Group as having anything to do with "Dateline."
Not sure why any of this is news and/or interesting... sounds like a guy was pissed that his editor/producer didn't let him follow his preferences - ie, whiny reporter. The second is quite misleading, as he asked GE (who in GE I'd be curious...) to use their business relations to get him a contact, which is not only marginally unethical but **** stupid as it indeed would risk their business relations for no significant gain. He wants to do a story on Bin Laden, he can ****ing get the contact himself. It does not state or even imply that he was prevented from reporting on them, just from improperly using the company's business relationship to get an easy lead.
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