Inside FNC’s Baghdad Bureau

Today’s NYT includes a great piece about the decline of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.

“For journalists, every war has its hotel, and for many reporters and camera crews, the Palestine, with its jerky elevators and shipping container-shaped rooms, was home, office and nightclub during the Iraq war,” Jeffrey Gettleman writes.

But now, “of the 420 rooms, fewer than 100 are occupied. Many of those will soon be vacant as more journalists retreat to rented medieval-style forts with huge walls and armed sentries.”

Fox News Channel, which rents an entire floor, is one of the last media organizations in the hotel.
“The place is definitely a little weird,” bureau chief John Fiegener says. “But you’ve got to give it to the staff. They put on a smile every day and try their best.”