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Twice NBC's Andrea Mitchell Confuses Iraq With Vietnam

By Brent Baker | October 31, 2007 | 21:26

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In a great illustration of how many mainstream media journalists view the war in Iraq through the prism of the war in Vietnam, twice on Wednesday's NBC Nightly News veteran foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell said “Vietnam” when she meant to say “Iraq.” Offering a brief summary of how State Department foreign service employees are fighting a plan to involuntarily assign 40 of them to the embassy in Baghdad, Mitchell told anchor Brian Williams about a meeting held Wednesday:

There were a couple of hundred diplomats -- this is extraordinary -- they rebelled against being ordered to Vietnam. Basically, 40 of them will have to go to Vietnam or lose their, excuse me, go to Iraq. This is the first time this has happened since the Vietnam war. There have not been such orders and they could lose their jobs if they don't go to Iraq and they clearly don't want to...

Video clip (25 secs): Real (800 Kb) or Windows Media (900 Kb), plus MP3 audio (150 Kb)

Below is the exchange on the October 31 NBC Nightly News as aired at 7pm EDT on Washington, DC's NBC-owned WRC-TV. (Judging by the live video screen behind Mitchell showing MSNBC's 6pm EDT Tucker, this was an un-updated 6:30pm EDT feed of the newscast.) Mitchell was at the NBC anchor desk with Williams following her report summarizing the Tuesday night Democratic presidential debate:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: While we have you here tonight, a little bit of political hubbub today at the State Department, your usual beat in Washington.

ANDREA MITCHELL: There were a couple of hundred diplomats -- this is extraordinary -- they rebelled against being ordered to Vietnam. Basically, forty of them will have to go to Vietnam or lose their, excuse me, go to Iraq. This is the first time this has happened since the Vietnam war. There have not been such orders and they could lose their jobs if they don't go to Iraq and they clearly don't want to, whether they are against the war or against the policy, they said it was because they hadn't been told, they read about it in the paper. And here's what one of them had say...