Richard Engel

From Grokipedia

Richard Engel (born September 16, 1973) is an American journalist serving as chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, specializing in coverage of international conflicts and political upheavals.

Engel graduated from Stanford University in 1996 with a degree in international relations before moving to Cairo to work as a freelance journalist. He joined NBC News in 2003 and became one of the few Western reporters to cover the entire Iraq War from Baghdad, often embedding with U.S. and Iraqi forces. His reporting extends to Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and other hotspots, where he has documented events like the Arab Spring uprisings and the rise of ISIS, frequently conducting interviews in local languages such as Arabic due to his fluency.

Engel's work has garnered significant recognition, including multiple News & Documentary Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, and the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism. He has authored books such as A Fist in the Hornet's Nest (2004) detailing his Iraq experiences.

Notable incidents include his 2012 kidnapping in Syria, initially reported as by al-Qaeda-linked militants but later corrected to Syrian rebels from Ahrar al-Sham after investigation revealed discrepancies in the account provided by his captors-turned-rescuers. Critics, including media watchdogs, have questioned aspects of Engel's reporting for occasional lapses into opinionated commentary amid NBC's institutional perspectives on foreign policy.

In brief

Richard Engel was a freelancer in Baghdad when the invasion began, filing for ABC before NBC hired the habit. Arabic, Italian, and Spanish are working tools, not ornaments.

Bureau chief, chief foreign correspondent, a diary from a war zone that won a courage medal: the career is the opposite of a studio sinecure. He still treats the airport as an office.