Update [2006-1-29 13:43:31 by BooMan]: CNN just reported that both Woodruff and Vogt are out of surgery and in stable condition.
Bob Woodruff was named co-anchor of ABC News’ World News Tonight in January 2006.
Woodruff also contributes reports to Nightline, and other ABC News broadcasts. Most recently he covered the presidential campaign of Senator John Edwards.
He has also reported extensively on the continuing unrest in Iraq from Baghdad, Najaf, Nassariya and Basra. During the initial invasion Woodruff reported from the front lines as an embedded journalist with the First Marine Division, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.
and:
“ABC World News Tonight” co-anchor Bob Woodruff [PHOTO ABOVE] and his cameraman, Doug Vogt [PHOTO LEFT], were seriously injured after their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device in Taji, Iraq, today.
Woodruff and Vogt are undergoing surgery at the U.S. military hospital in Balad. Both men suffered head injuries. Woodruff sustained shrapnel wounds and Vogt was hit by shrapnel in the head and suffered a broken shoulder.
Woodruff, Vogt and their four-man team were traveling in a convoy with Iraqi security forces. They had been embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and were in a mechanized vehicle when the explosive went off. The exposion was followed by small arms fire.
“This is very common over there now,” said White House correspondent Martha Raddatz on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” today. “These attacks are planned, and this [the small arms attack] is a secondary attack. Sometimes when the medical personnel come in, they have small arms fire following up on that,” said Raddatz, who also covered the Pentagon for years and has had entensive experience in Iraq.
Woodruff and his crew had been traveling in a U.S. armored humvee, but then transferred into an Iraqi vehicle — which was believed to be a much softer target for attacks.
“It was a mechanized vehicle,” Raddatz said. “At least it wasn’t one of the pickup trucks they usually drive around in. They were in the lead vehicle, and they were up in the hatch, so they were exposed.”
Raddatz said both Woodruff and Vogt were protected. They were wearing body armor, helmets and ballistic glasses. Woodruff and Vogt were taken by medevac to the Green Zone to receive treatment. They were then flown by helicopter to Balad which is about a 20-minute ride from Baghdad, said Raddatz.
“There are very good doctors, the best medical care you can possibly get, in Balad,” said Raddatz.
(See also: AP story)
Woodruff has four kids. I’m hoping for the best.
Oh dear. I haven’t seen any reports on TV yet … probably just missed them 🙁
All the Seattle stations preempted normal programming for a huge send-off for the Seahawks this morning at the stadium. The crowd was enormous.
I’m so very sad and troubled by this … as much as loathe Bush et al. for this insane position we’re ALL in, I also hate the men who plant those mines … it’s unbelievably cruel to do that to any human being. (Just like us bombing civilians.)
MSNBC just had their military expert on … I didn’t hear all of his comments because my neighbor called me …
but he said both men were standing, like they were filming something .. and they caught the FULL BRUNT of the device.
And BODY ARMOR is NO PROTECTION against these devices, he said.
Shit.
BOOMAN: I’m so glad to see your update.
But the MSNBC military expert’s opinions and conjectures scared me. I wonder what’s really going on … perhaps the military is filtering all reports through ABC News so they can control what gets out, and also protect the families? Dunno how they’d handle the press for such a high-profile injury.
I just hope the optimistic reports bear out.
Um, right.
NO disrespect intended, but if this guy dies, it’s going to mean more than just the mascara and the fetching pretty boy looks on Woodruff.
The MSM has got to stop playing around and start calling this debacle just what it is, independent of their handlers and enablers.
Good point.
Maybe this’ll make more real what PBS Newshour does every night at the conclusion of its newscast: Showing, in silence, the photos of the men and women — black, white, and brown, young and older — who’ve died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Aaron Brown used to do it too.
I don’t think CNN does that anymore. (Am I right?)
Will Aaron Brown get another MSM job, or has he been black-listed?? As much as I complain about the MSM, I thought of Brown as one of the few good people left.
I put it up without commentary.
Whether losing a high profile reporter to death or permanent injury is going to change the dynamics of the political debate?… that can await another time when these men are not lying on operating tables fighting for their lives.
It was a huge relief to read that they were wearing helments … but I wonder if those helmets are strong enough considering how much the “insurgents” have increased the power of these devices.
Head injuries scare me more than anything else … because our brains, our eyes (!), and our ears are so important to us humans …
scars they can wear proudly. I just pray they’re intact. Listening so much to Murtha recently, I’ve heard how very many U.S. soldiers are instantly blinded for life by these devices.
or even pay for it.
But you know, there have been a lot of foreign journalists over there shot either by our soldiers or by the insurgency.
Chickens? Roost? Maybe/not.
We also don’t know yet what happened to the Christian Science Monitor reporter.
Just my two cents.
And Stable!
Let’s hope. Thanks, Jim.
I guess that means it had a motor, which probably means Haliburton isn’t in the horse business.
The TIME mag reporter who lost a hand when he tossed a grenade out the window of his Humvee is on MSNBC now. …
Name: Micahel Weisskopf
He saved several people’s lives by picking up that grenade that had been tossed in the window, and throwing it out the window before it went off … but it did blow off his hand.
MSNBC says there’ve been several attacks … i think they said 3 dead and 6 iraqis injured …
more after the ads.
ALSO: The Time mag guy said he’d go back to Iraq. … he sorta talks like Dick Cheney … firm, stiff chin type
MSNBC reports that they were both wearing ballistic-proof eyeglasses as well as the helmets. WHEW … I hope they worked.
The truth eventually gets undeniable…
I hope that they are doing OK! Such courage is not common among our Bush brown nosing media
now reporting that Woodruff and Vogt have been airlifted to Germany…