Live Report From North Korea Cut Short After NBC Reporter Describes Failed Missile as 'Enormous Embarrassment'

By Jack Coleman | April 13, 2012 | 17:58

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North Koreans appear even more prickly about criticism of their dear leadership as American liberals are of theirs.

On her MSNBC show last night, Rachel Maddow was interviewing NBC foreign correspondent Richard Engel live from Pyongyang shortly after a long-range missile launched by the communist regime broke apart and crashed into the sea. (video after page break)

"This is an enormous embarrassment for North Korea," Engel said after describing the three-stage missile with a model of the rocket. "And what's critical to see now is how the North Korean government is going to explain this to the world and explain this to its own people."

Maddow responded, "Richard, given what you have been told about what the missile launch was for in North Korea, the fact that you are there at all, that they are letting you see things, that they are trying to show this off to you in some way or another, given ..."

At which point Engel pointed to his earpiece and said, "I no longer have audio."

Maddow, clearly disappointed -- "I can talk, I can hear Richard, but he can't hear me? Richard still can't hear me?" (No response from a still-visible Engel). "All right, we have lost our connection with Richard, with Richard Engel in Pyongyang."

After the interview was abruptly cut short -- curiously close to Engel's observation of the botched launch as hugely embarrassing to North Korea -- Maddow was at a loss to explain what happened and did not say anything about technical difficulties. (I posted a longer version of the segment at YouTube).

Earlier while talking with Maddow, Engel said the North Korean "minder" shepherding Western journalists during their stay in the country reacted comically when asked about the errant missile -- which the reporters learned about from news sources outside of North Korea, not from the minder.

"We were met with a completely blank stare and then he shrugged his shoulders and ran out of the room," Engel said.

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Jack Coleman is a recovering former liberal journalist from Massachusetts. Click here to follow Jack Coleman on Twitter.

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Well,,,they

Submitted by fivestring_assassin on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 6:10pm.

picked the right person to interrupt

We owe them that

A Recession is when your neighbor is out of a job. A Depression is when YOU are out of a job.. A recovery is when OBAMA is out of a job Hat tip to Ronald Reagan

The question is . . .

Submitted by Cool Arrow on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 6:14pm.

Was it the NorKors or MSNBC that cut the feed?

They do hold similar views.

Isn't Maddow supposed to be sooooooo smart?

Submitted by JeffC... on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 6:23pm.

A man-on-the-scene in North Korea report gets cut off due to technical issues after an event that humiliates the repressive totalitarian government.

What do YOU think happened, Rachel? Let's see if your answer matches that of the rest of the free world.

They Practice Slanted and Biased Reporting Enough...

Submitted by Winghunter on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 6:27pm.

... to know exactly what censorship looks like.

"Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." -- Thomas Sowell

To be fair to DPRK on their

Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 6:24pm.

To be fair to DPRK on their rocketry attempt; we must remember how many missiles the USA launched that ended up in failure. The problem is the DPRK is publicizing these launches. They should learn how to do it and do it right before they publicize. We have still had some doozies in our program and if it ever starts up again we l will have more.

Nuke em til they glow; then shoot em in the dark

To be fair?

Submitted by Bill R. on Sun, 04/15/2012 - 3:02pm.

To be fair, most of our early launches were on newsreel too. (This was long before the internet in case you didn't know) This is the 21st century and the norks have the benefit of Pakistan's technology. Where do you think they got the bomb? They may get it right sooner or later but they are incompetent boobs for the most part. The only surprise about this whole affair is that the norks aren't lying to their own people about the failure.

Hey MADDOW: Look in the freakin' MIRROR!!

Submitted by gopcongress on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 6:42pm.

Note what NK did to your precious correspondent in Pyong yang (I hate to pronounce it because I would get a condemnation letter from the local Asian Political Correctness Brigade for my "racist" attempt at talking Asian). You should look in the mirror to see the tactics that YOU use returned right back at you by NK.

Sound familiar? At least NK is no less ignorant or truthful than the Obama press corpse (pun intended).

"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER