FOX News’ Steve Centanni And Cameraman Kidnapped In Gaza


FOX News’ Steve Centanni

Via Breitbart/AP:

Palestinian gunmen ambushed a car carrying a Fox News crew in Gaza City on Monday and kidnapped two of the journalists inside, according to witnesses and Fox. “We can confirm that two of our people were taken against their will in Gaza,” Fox News said in a statement.

A Fox employee in Gaza, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to release information about the incident, said the two kidnapped people were reporter Steve Centanni, a U.S. citizen, and a cameraman from New Zealand.

The men, along with a bodyguard, were parked near the headquarters of the Palestinian security services when two trucks filled with gunmen pulled up and boxed them in, according to the employee. The gunmen took the two out of their sports utility vehicle, which was marked “TV,” and drove away, he said.

Major militant groups in Gaza denied having any connection to the abduction, and there was no immediate word of any demands made.

Security officials put police across Gaza on alert to find the gunmen and free the journalists, said Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal.

“This is not acceptable at all,” he said.

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.

One can only hope that Centanni and his cameraman are as lucky as all the others that have been kidnapped. In the meantime, keep them in your prayers.

UPDATE: Mary Katharine Ham, guest-blogging for Michelle Malkin, has lots on the situation here including the cameraman’s name: Olaf Wiig.

Meanwhile, the DUers have a thread up. Here’s a filthy taste:

The full thread is here if you feel like being disgusted further.

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Greg Tinti
About Greg Tinti
Greg started the blog The Political Pit Bull in August 2005. He was OTB's Breaking News Editor from June through August 2006 before deciding to return to his own blog. His blogging career eventually ended altogether. He has a B.A. in Anthropology from The George Washington University,

Comments

  1. Tano says:

    Groan. C’mon Tinti, have you no greater contribution to make to the political discourse than to play the outrage game by trolling in the comments of some loony site? Grow up already.

  2. Hal says:

    So Greg, how does this compare to the way the right treated Jill Caroll? And comparing the reactions to the two cases would make a rather interesting blog post, don’t you think?

    Or, hey, I know. How about that peace activist that was rolled over with a bull dozer in Israel? I can remember a lot of really nasty statements there. There’s a lot of ripe material there that isn’t even fit to print on a family oriented blog.

  3. Pug says:

    Prepare for another blast of hot air as the right-wing outrage machine gets cranked up.

    I hope Centanni and his cameraman make it out of Iraq alive. I also hope Debbie Shclussel doesn’t start to write things like this about him: Why was Jill Carroll Steve Centanni freed? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she he HATES AMERICA and our Mid-East policy. And, oh yeah, she he HATES ISRAEL, too.

    This was not from her comments.

  4. Pug says:

    I seriously, honestly do hope Centanni and his colleague come out of this all right.

  5. lunacy says:

    Pug says, “I hope Centanni and his cameraman make it out of Iraq alive. ”

    I say, Gaza is in “Palestine”.

  6. Greg Tinti says:

    Tano and Hal:

    Seriously, what are you trying to accomplish by criticizing me for posting what is said at DU? Here’s a novel idea: criticize the posters at DU and stop changing the subject.

  7. Pug says:

    I say, Gaza is in “Palestine”.

    And you are right. My mistake.

  8. legion says:

    Oh really, Greg? And posting a news item about the kidnapping of another journalist, and then taking a nose-dive into name-calling about DU commenters doesn’t count as changing the subject yourself?

    Or was your actual subject the disgusting comments on a particular website – a subject Tano, Hal and Pug address quite properly?

  9. Greg Tinti says:

    legion: with all due respect, the subject of a post that I write is whatever I want it to be. The subject of this post was Centanni’s kidnapping and, later, I added reaction from DU. That’s not a nose-dive, a swan-dive, or belly flop. Congrats on calling the remarks at DU “disgusting.” That’s Superb. But Hal and Tano just complained about me referencing them. Why? If you don’t agree with them, then why do you care if I point them out? DU isn’t just some looney liberal site that no one has ever heard of, after all.

  10. legion says:

    Yeah, Greg, it’s whatever you want it to be. But if you start out with a news post, and then turn it into yet another potshot at dems, you’ve still changed the subject. And even then, you’re free to do that. But if you do, you have no juice when you criticise posters for addressing the change you yourself made.

    So what is your subject, anyway, Greg? That someone has been kidnapped by terrorists & is fighting for their life? Of that some subset of leftys are making the same kinds of insensitive jokes about it that some rightys did when a liberal was in the same situation? Or is it just that you’d rather insult leftys than anything else in the world?

  11. DC Loser says:

    Oh, I’ve never heard people on this sight make jokes about kidnapped journalists, NOT!

  12. Anderson says:

    I’m a little puzzled why Tinti (1) goes partisan on a sad event that we should all be together on, and then (2) is annoyed when he’s called on making it a partisan occasion.

    Kevin Drum is trying to popularize the term “nutpicking” for this kind of nonsense. I really would think that anyone on Left or Right would be able to realize in advance that ain’t nobody going to win the War of the Tasteless Commenters.

    Don’t be a nutpicker!

  13. Hal says:

    Greg, you wonder why? I mean, are you serious? Can you not understand the desire to counter your “democrats are ugly scum because they’re saying nasty things about a Fox cameraman?”. I mean, what? Are you really that disconnected with reality?

    Here. I’ll speak really slowly.

    My point is that the reaction to precisely the same situation by the right was basically unprintable. Better, it wasn’t just found on Lucianne.com. It was all over the major blogs on the right. Here, when the situation is “reversed” so to speak, you’re reduced to dredging the barrel at DU and the best you can come up with are some Geraldo jokes and some inappropriate humor at the expense of someone who’s in desperate straights. What happened in this same situation on the right is that they started calling Jill Caroll a traitor and worse. I don’t see that here. The poor woman who lost her life when the bulldozer ran over her – well, you can’t even publish the reaction from the likes of your buds over at LGF because they were so depraved.

    So, if you’re going to play the outrage game, then you’re in for the full rules. You don’t like the heat then stay out of the frickin’ kitchen, wimp.

  14. Greg Tinti says:

    legion: Again, try answering the question that I posed the last time rather than again raising the issue of whether the subject was changed or not. The comments, you admit, are “disgusting.” So why is anyone mad or critical at the fact that I decide to post them here?

    Anderson: I went partisan on this sad event? Seriously, can I have whatever you are smoking because it must be good. I think the people at DU are the ones the went partisan by expressing joy that two employees of FOX News were kidnapped.

    Hal: I never said and wasn’t implying that Democrats are “ugly scum.” But the people whom post at Democratic Underground sure seem to be and that was the point of the post. And please Hal, spare the gotcha games. Pointing to the bad behavior of others doesn’t justify what was said at DU, or help make anything you are saying less incoherent.

    P.S. And that’s the end of it for me because this is never going to go anywhere with any of you.

  15. Len says:

    Kind of caught me off guard for a moment, Greg. I thought you were showing a thread from Free Republic!

  16. DC Loser says:

    Sheesh. All that proved was that the left can almost equal the loony right in vitriol.

  17. Len says:

    Sometimes we must bow to the masters, DC Loser.

  18. legion says:

    Again, try answering the question that I posed the last time rather than again raising the issue of whether the subject was changed or not. The comments, you admit, are “disgusting.” So why is anyone mad or critical at the fact that I decide to post them here?

    Sheesh. Hal tried giving it to you slowly – maybe you can only deal with one-syllable words. I can’t really think down to your level, so I’ll give it one more go before I forget you.

    People are upset because you are (a) painting the entire left with a handful of boorish posts at DU, when the vast majority are instead saddened and outraged at this latest kidnapping, (b) deliberately ignoring the fact that a large percentage of righty bloggers _really did_ hold these opinions when the victim was someone whose politics they didn’t like – i.e., that someone of a differing opinion was technically sub-human; their life wasn’t worth getting outraged over, and (c) hiding behind your own feigned ignorance of the above for no other reason than to insult liberals.

    That’s why.

  19. Bithead says:

    Kevin Drum is trying to popularize the term “nutpicking” for this kind of nonsense. I really would think that anyone on Left or Right would be able to realize in advance that ain’t nobody going to win the War of the Tasteless Commenters.

    We got this many nuts because they’ve been ignored thus far. the fact is these kind of Nepal’s represent a large part of the democratic party of today. And the New York Times brands them as moderates.

  20. Delores Vega says:

    My sincere wishes for the safety and quick release of the Fox News employees kidnapped in Gaza. I so admire the reporters and others who put themselves in harms way to bring us the news. God bless you all.

  21. Herb says:

    JJ:

    I haven’t seen anything about this kidnapping on the news and FOX NEWS is silent. What do you think is up?

  22. Anne says:

    I can’t understand why some people are so cruel. We should all be concerned about this kidnapping.

  23. As an extended member of the centanni family I am disgusted that someone would think it was funny that my family member was kidnapped. Did you ever stop to think what we are going through. He is a real human with a real family that shares real admiration and love for him, and we just want to know he is alive. More than that we want him home. Please put yourself in our shoes and try to be a little more sensitive.

  24. Steve Centanne says:

    Hopefully more people don’t think I’m the news man that was kidnapped. I wish him, his cameraman and his family the best. – Steve Centanne

  25. Adriana Mislinski says:

    I hope whoever kidnapped Journalist Steve Centanni realizes that he is a loving, caring and valuable life not worth harming. I admire the journalism work he has done over the past few years for the Fox News Station and my prayers are with him and his family.

    Please release him and the cameraman from New Zealand!

  26. diamond stud says:

    i want to
    see him beheaded
    so i can download
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    when i eat my dinner

  27. A. Richardson says:

    diamond stud you are a disgusting piece of trash.

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    i want to have sex with avril lavigne’s stinky brown human FECES
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  29. diamond stud says:

    i dont care
    about that punk centanni.
    i hope that he was beheaded
    and is now rotting
    on the ground praise hitler
    i just wish they would take that jew luving whore jennifer griffin

  30. lavigne's stinky FECES says:

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    her stinky FECES on my tounge.
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  31. stefani's FECES says:

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  33. diamond stud says:

    i prey centanni is
    BEHEADED and dies a slow
    painful death
    i hope they are beating him
    i hope he cries like a little bitch
    ha ha ha ha

  34. diamond stud says:

    i want too
    stick my finger in avril lavigne’s stinky
    asshole and then smell my finger
    i bet it will stink real bad
    i bet avril lavigne’s asshole stinks

  35. diamond stud says:

    i need to get a life
    but i am a fag
    that thinks it is funny
    to post stupid ass comments

  36. diamond stud says:

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    i i am turned on by sexy hott girls
    shiting there stinky FECES
    i want to stick my finger
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  37. sexx with FECES says:

    i want to
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    from gimme a break kari michaelsen’s stinky
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  38. diamond stud says:

    the real diamond stud!
    i still have no life
    so i write stupid comments.
    i am so retarted
    that i cannot even spell

  39. Gary says:

    Well FOX News’ Steve Centanni is free. His comments after he was freed was stupid, “they are kind hearted loving people”. Yeah every time I see they blew up another bus full of Innocent people or blows up a store of people I get the feeling they have to be really good people. I think all really kind hearted people probably teach there children to hate and want to kill for there god. All I have seen really makes me want to just go party with these good hearted chaps. SURE