OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
After it was announced that Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and consultant Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova were killed and reporter Bill Hall was injured as they covered the Russia and Ukraine war, the Fox News show “The Five” paid tribute to them.
“Putin is the devil. He is a war criminal. His invasion of his neighboring sovereign nation is as barbaric as it is unjustified and now his brutality has struck the Fox News family, and the team led by our correspondent Benjamin Hall who was attacked, grievously wounding the correspondent, the person you see there in the foreground,” host Geraldo Rivera said.
Eventually, the conversation got to 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.
“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. Which 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.
Here is Greg Gutfeld talking about Benjamin Hall today. Mentions that they spoke last week after their "little kerfuffle" and ends by calling Hall "a lovely guy." pic.twitter.com/VuTIBm7szd
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 15, 2022
“But since I’m not going anywhere near the war I am sure as hell not going to tell a single person to go there and die in a foreign country. I learned that lesson with Iraq and I am never going to go through that again,” he said.
“Ben’s job is to go there and delineate the truth through imagery. It is harder to do now than ever given social media, the internet, the rise of disinformation. But if you are sitting here at this table, you must be a radical skeptic because you aren’t there, Ben is. And I hope to God he makes it through. It is a horrible thing that happened to him and he is — to sound British, he is a lovely guy,” he said.
After Greg Gutfeld said the media is airing emotionally manipulating viewers on Ukraine to push a narrative, Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall pushes back:
"Speaking as someone on the ground, I want to say that this is not the media trying to drum up some emotional response." pic.twitter.com/QFom203TCB
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 8, 2022
Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott announced the tragedy on Tuesday.
“It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we share the news this morning regarding our beloved cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski,” the CEO said.
“Pierre was a war zone photographer who covered nearly every international story for FOX News from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria during his long tenure with us,” she said. “His passion and talent as a journalist were unmatched. Based in London, Pierre had been working in Ukraine since February.”
“His talents were vast and there wasn’t a role that he didn’t jump in to help with in the field — from photographer to engineer to editor to producer — and he did it all under immense pressure with tremendous skill,” she said. “He was profoundly committed to telling the story and his bravery, professionalism and work ethic were renowned among journalists at every media outlet. He was wildly popular – everyone in the media industry who has covered a foreign story knew and respected Pierre.”
