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Fox News Journalist Details Near Death Experience Covering Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Photo of Carmine Sabia Carmine SabiaMarch 16, 2023
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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.

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A Fox News personality has reflected on his brush with death after a van carrying a group of journalists from the network was attacked covering the Russia and Ukraine conflict. It came a year after the attack that claimed the life of Fox News photojournalist Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, Fox News reported.

“One year today, I can’t believe it, and look where we are. We’re sitting here today and come a long way. But first of all, we’ve got to remember that one year ago Pierre passed away, and Sasha passed away, so it’s a day of real mixed emotions for me,” Benjamin Hall said.

“If I had the slightest iota of consciousness, it was a distant sense of shock waves and the feeling that every part of my body – bones, organs, sinew, my soul – had been knocked out of me,” he said in his memoir, “Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission To Make It Home.”

“I was all but dead but improbably, out of this crippling nothingness, a figure came through, and I heard a familiar voice, as real as anything I’d ever known. ‘Daddy, you’ve got to get out of the car,’” the reporter said.

“I opened my eyes and managed to crawl out of the car,” he said. “If it weren’t for them bringing me back, there is no way I would be here today.”

FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace also spoke about the anniversary in a memo to staff.

“The immediate moments, and months that followed, have been nothing short of extraordinary – filled with triumph, perseverance, and incredible humanity,” the pair said.

“From Jennifer Griffin engineering a team that included Sarah Verardo’s Save Our Allies, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Polish and Ukrainian government officials – to the incredible care at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center – to London Bureau Chief Dragan Petrovic’s coordination throughout, along with countless others — a miraculous rescue and recovery ensued,” they said. “And today, on the one-year anniversary, we are overjoyed to welcome Ben back home to FOX News Media headquarters. Having Ben here has been nothing short of awe-inspiring… while we are thrilled to welcome Ben home, we are also still mourning the profound loss of Pierre and Sasha.”

Hall gave an update on his condition last year and it was harrowing.

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“To sum it up, I’ve lost half a leg on one side and a foot on the other. One hand is being put together, one eye is no longer working, and my hearing is pretty blown … but all in all I feel pretty damn lucky to be here — and it is the people who got me here who are amazing!” he said in a now-deleted tweet in which he showed a photo of himself.

The New York Post reported:

Hall wore a patch over his left eye as he smiled from a hospital bed.

Hall was traveling in a vehicle on March 14 alongside cameraman and friend Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and a Ukrainian fixer, journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova, 24, when Russian troops opened fire on the car. 

Fox News confirmed that Zakrzewski and Kuvshynova died of their wounds. Hall was evacuated out of the country and transported to a hospital in Texas, where he underwent several surgeries for his injuries.

Hall paid his respects to his two colleagues in another tweet on Thursday with a photo of Zakrzewski, who was reportedly a close friend of the journalist.

Fox News correspondent John Roberts announced live on television in March that Hall was injured in Ukraine while reporting on the conflict in the region.

“We’ve got a Fox News alert to pass along to you and this is news that we hate to pass along to you, but it’s obviously what happens sometimes in the middle of a conflict, a Fox News journalist has been injured while newsgathering outside of Kyiv,” Roberts said on Monday. “Very few details, but teams on the ground are working as hard as they can to try to gather more information.”

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“A reminder, of course, that this is in a war zone,” Roberts continued.

“That information changes very quickly and we are working as hard as possible to get the best information that we possibly can and get all of the details on what has happened. The safety of our Fox team, of course, is of the utmost importance and our highest priority. More on this as we get it and again just to repeat a Fox journalist has been injured while newsgathering outside of Kyiv,” Roberts added.

In March, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld who recalled an argument he had with Hall not long ago.

“The thing that pisses me off is that he is handsome and he is funny and we joked about what went on on The Five,” he said in reference to Hall going against him after he accused the media of pushing an “emotional response” to war.

“I won’t say what we talked about because frankly it is nobody’s business but he did say something that I agreed with 100%. And he said, Greg, ‘you can’t do my job, and I can’t do yours.’ And I said, ‘duh, my job is way easier,’” the host said.

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“I do get death threats but they are usually from Dana, on pink stationery,” he quipped.

“But we can afford to pontificate because we are thousands of miles away. They can’t afford to pontificate at all because they are always in danger,” he said before explaining what he believes his role in the media is.

“As Geraldo said, war is the worst thing you can imagine. That is what we do here. We imagine. But what Ben and his coworkers do, they don’t imagine it, they actually see it. This is why when I am sitting here, for me, I must be as anti-war as possible until I can no longer be anti-war because it’s like those TV hosts that were telling you to stay home indefinitely during Covid because they still worked, they still got their paychecks, they got the camera crew coming to their house,” the host said.

“They were divorced from their consequences. That was the same thing here. It is easy to talk about war at home. As Geraldo said, it is not romantic,” he said.

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Photo of Carmine Sabia Carmine SabiaMarch 16, 2023