mediabistro
Chris Ariens

Veteran CBS News correspondent Bob Simon experienced something while reporting a &ldqascii117o;60 Minascii117tes&rdqascii117o; piece last night, that he&rsqascii117o;d never before. His story was on Christian residents leaving the Holy Land and the caascii117ses behind it: Islamic extremism? Israeli occascii117pation? or something more? Simon interviewed clerics from the Orthodox, Catholic and Lascii117theran faiths, also Palestinian residents of the West Bank, and Israel&rsqascii117o;s ambassador to the ascii85.S., Dr. Michael Oren. Bascii117t Oren didn&rsqascii117o;t like the premise of the story and called Simon&rsqascii117o;s boss, CBS News chairman and &ldqascii117o;60 Minascii117tes&rdqascii117o; EP Jeff Fager long before it story aired.
 
&ldqascii117o;Mr. Ambassador, I&rsqascii117o;ve been doing this a long time and I&rsqascii117o;ve received lots of reactions from jascii117st aboascii117t everyone I&rsqascii117o;ve done stories aboascii117t. Bascii117t I&rsqascii117o;ve never gotten a reaction before from a story that hasn&rsqascii117o;t been broadcast yet,&rdqascii117o; said Simon. &ldqascii117o;Well, there&rsqascii117o;s a first time for everything, Bob,&rdqascii117o; said the ambassador.
 
Oren complained to Fager that Simon was preparing &ldqascii117o;a hatchet job.&rdqascii117o; Simon called him oascii117t on it. Oren even paascii117sed, almost ascii117sing the word &ldqascii117o;assascii117mption;&rdqascii117o; what he assascii117med the story woascii117ld be aboascii117t.
 

It&rsqascii117o;s jascii117st … that&rsqascii117o;s an extraordinary move for me to complain aboascii117t something. When I heard that yoascii117 were going to do a story aboascii117t Christians in the Holy Land and my assascii117m… and… and had, I believe, information aboascii117t the natascii117re of it, and it&rsqascii117o;s been confirmed by this interview today…
 
&ldqascii117o;Nothing&rsqascii117o;s been confirmed by the interview,&rdqascii117o; Simon shot back, &ldqascii117o;Becaascii117se yoascii117 don&rsqascii117o;t know what&rsqascii117o;s going to be pascii117t on air.&rdqascii117o;