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There was only one other story that was newsworthy enough to warrant coverage by a correspondent on all three newscasts. The influence-peddling scandal surrounding Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Prince Andrew of England, current Duchess of York, involved videotape recorded undercover by a journalistic sting set up by The News of the World, Rupert Murdoch's London based tabloid. Presumably because of copyright clearance issues, none of the networks posted their Fergie coverage as an online videostream.
That leaves Richard Engel's feature from Mogadishu, The Most Dangerous Place in the World, as he titled his NBC two-parter. He filed from the exposed staircase of the bombed out headquarters of the 5,000-man peacekeeping force that is being overrun by the Shabab guerrilla force. "al-Qaeda members are our Moslem brothers. We do not call them foreigners," was how Engel quoted a Shabab commander.
Engel explained that the United States will no longer deploy its own troops on the ground in Mogadishu, following its 1993 defeat, which was immortalized in the movie Blackhawk Down. That is not to say the US has no presence. There is the Pentagon's role: "At night we have been hearing the unmistakable sound of American drones circling in the sky over Mogadishu. They seem to be flying very low and make passes every 10 to 15 minutes." And, according to Engel's unidentified spook sources, the Shabab army includes 50-or-so soldiers from the United States, mostly Somali-Americans.
Andrew:
Your "About Tindall" page still has ABC's newscast listed as "World News Tonight with Charles Gibson." Also, nice job on the distillation of all things Mimi.
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