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Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall’s new book,Saved: War Reporter’s Mission to Go Home(Harper, 14 March 2023).
Pentagon
March 14, 2022 Arlington, Virginia
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin looked down Corridor 9, upstairs in the Pentagon’s D-ring, and saw a woman running straight toward her. — Sylvie Lantheme was a longtime national correspondent for the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) — but I had no idea why she seemed in such a hurry. There was no. Jenn was rushing through the Pentagon corridors faster than she had her share, with tight deadlines and breaking news.
“Is your team okay?” Rantheme asked when they arrived.
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Jen Griffin was in the process of preparing a report on the war in Ukraine based on a poignant question she had just submitted to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby.
It has been a stressful morning, noon and night since Russia invaded Ukraine 18 days ago. Fox News had several employees on the ground in Ukraine, and there was a constant whirlwind of concern and activity around them, but Jen heard nothing about anything happening to anyone. No, but the look on Rantame’s face told her that something was wrong.
“Ben and Pierre could have been beaten,” Lantheme said.
Pierre Zakshevsky was one of the photographers working for Fox News in Ukraine. Of course Ben was me.
Soon, Jen fell into an operational mindset. “My brain moves a mile every minute spinning all these movements: Who do I know, who can I call, what can I do,” she explains. has dealt with traumatic situations before.”
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Since joining Fox News in 1999, Jen has been shot in Gaza while covering the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, covered the killing of Osama bin Laden and the attack on the Benghazi consulate in Libya, and worked in dangerous war zones. was interrogating senior military leaders. In the world.
She was known as a leader and crisis manager as effective as her journalism. “Jennifer walked into her room and within five minutes everyone was saying to her, ‘What should I do?
Outside the Pentagon’s Fox News media booth, Jen was on her cell phone within a few seconds of Rantheme asking about the team. She had to find out what happened, how bad it was, and what she could do to fix it.
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The first person she called was Jay Wallace.Shortly before noon that day, Executive Assistant Nicole Nee Jay Wallace, president of Fox News Media, picked up the call at her office in the Newscorp Building, Fox News’ skyscraper headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. It was Greg Haden’s phone. Greg, head of Fox News International and vice president of news reporting, asked Jay to speak.
Nicole said Jay was in a meeting and would be out in about ten minutes.
Two minutes later, I get another call from Greg.
“I want you to bring Jay, it’s urgent,” he said. “I think our team was attacked in Ukraine.”
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Nicole wrote a message on a post-it and rushed to the upstairs conference room where Fox News CEO Jay and Suzanne Scott were having a talent meeting. In the conference room, she handed Jay a note.
I got a call from Haden – it’s urgent.it read.
