Cameraman Killed in Ukraine: “Pierre Died Doing Something That He Knew Was Really and Truly Important”

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Published: March 16, 2022 | Date of Source Audio: March 16, 2022

Transcribed and modified for publication from the original audio program

Hugh Hewitt talks with veteran news anchor Leland Vittert about the casualties and confusion of war

Hugh Hewitt: Two American journalists have been killed in Ukraine today, among them, Pierre Zakrzewski, a cameraman for Fox News. We know that Benjamin Hall is injured as well. I don't know the extent of his injury. Joining me now is Leland Vittert, many years with Fox News, now the anchor for NewsNation Now. Good morning, Leland. How are you?

Leland Vittert: Hey, Hugh. Good morning.

Hewitt: Tell us about Pierre. I know you worked with him.

Vittert: An incredible man, cameraman by trade, but he turned into a photographer, a producer, a video editor, equipment repairman, phenomenal friend, occasional therapist in war zone to war zone. And when I worked with Pierre, during my four years overseas, what was incredible is that two things were true when you showed up at a story with Pierre. Which is number one, whatever the story was, he had already been there. He already knew more about the story than you did. We like to say as young foreign correspondents that Pierre probably had forgotten more about war than we would ever know. And two, he had this incredible smile that brought a sense of calm and relaxation to the most dangerous of situations. And it was pretty incredible that oftentimes when the rest of us would sort of have our hearts in our throats and want to scream, Pierre had to chuckle because he had been through so many situations like that before and was able to help so many of us through whatever situation we were in.

Hewitt: … Pierre Zach Zakrzewski is the cameraman who died and obviously, we've got other journalists injured over there, Benjamin Hall among them. I don't know what it's like to be in a war zone, but it must be just a constant grind, Leland.

Vittert: It really is. And I think it speaks to Pierre's moral courage – and I use those words with deference to what it means – but Pierre understood the risk. There's a lot of guys out on what we used to call “the circuit,” going from war zone to war zone, who are the glory hounds who enjoy the adrenaline rush and living out there. He wasn't like that. He understood, and now more than ever, that having somebody there on the ground to tell the truth and to see what was happening, to report that back          mattered, that there was value in that, and that it was important for the world to see through unfiltered eyes what was happening. And he believed in that. And he believed in that higher calling. And as we talked about Pierre yesterday with friends, the one thing that we kept coming back to is Pierre died doing something that he knew was really and truly important, and he truly cared about. And he'd been out there for 20-plus years. He was back in Afghanistan, all the way back before 9/11, covering conflict.

“There is an enormous fog of war that has really come across what is going on in Ukraine.”

Hewitt: War correspondents – from Ernie Pyle forward – war correspondents know what to do. And there's a fallen journalist memorial underway, Congressman David Dreier, former congressman, organizing it. I hope it picks up momentum to honor people like this.

Leland, how do you figure out what's going on? I consult the Financial Times and the Telegraph. I go to The Times of Israel, of course, the big newspapers in the United States and major news sources, but it's all a fog of war. How do you figure out what to tell your audience every night?

Vittert: Hugh, you make a great point that there is an enormous fog of war that has really come across what is going on in Ukraine. And I think at least for us, we spend a lot of time trying to talk to people on the ground. And I think about my old fixer from when I was in Ukraine in 2014, he's now a member of Parliament, Sviat Yurash, who I talked to quite often to try to understand what’s really happening on the ground. And I think, and you'd probably agree with this, that if you take all your sources from the FT, the Telegraph, The Times of Israel, major papers here, the television networks on and on and on, you get a sense after a while of being able to distill that down to something of what the ground truth is. And it's normally somewhere in the middle and is always a lot more confusing than any one outlet wants to make it out to be.

Hewitt: So, Leland, I want to ask you, I want to explain my theory. … the United States has acted last at every step. And most recently we've stopped the MiG-29. Does Biden feel pressure after today's address by Zelensky to up aid to Ukraine?

Vittert: At least under what we understand is that he is going to up aid to Ukraine in terms of dollars. That's one of the things the White House is going to try to announce. We were talking, it feels as though very much that President Biden has brought back the Obama administration foreign policy of leading from behind. And certainly, if you think about Boris Johnson has been way, way out, farther than President Biden has been in terms of talking about Putin and helping Zelensky.

It is puzzling to me – think whatever you want of the White House's policy – but it is puzzling to me the extremes that the White House goes to, to telegraph and to be public about the pains they go to, to not provoke Vladimir Putin. And they keep saying it over and over and over again. It’s a clear overarching principle.