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Yesterday's interruption of Iraq coverage caused by that North Carolina tornado proved to be a one-day wonder. For the fourth weekday out of five this week, Iraq was the lead story on all three networks. This time it was the hijack of 19 trucks from a 44-vehicle convoy operated by the Kuwait-based contractor Crescent Security Group: five drivers have been kidnapped at a fake police checkpoint, four of them Americans.

CBS covered the hijack most heavily. Elizabeth Palmer was the only Baghdad-based reporter assigned to the story: "More and more these days men who look like police are criminals in disguise." And Armen Keteyian followed up with a feature on the high pay and dangerous conditions encountered by civilians working on the military logistic supply lines. He recommended the book Cindy in Iraq by Cynthia Morgan, a memoir by a rare female trucker.

ABC and NBC covered the story from the Pentagon. ABC's Jonathan Karl, who broke the story yesterday with a brief stand-up, reported that this checkpoint was manned by soldiers from Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in stolen police commando uniforms. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski chose a human-interest angle, showcasing one trucker's distraught family in Minneapolis.

Andrew Tyndall 11/18/06 9:40:29 pm

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