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Shep’s Interview With Steve & Olaf, & Greta ‘After the Show’ (VIDEO)

August 30th, 2006 at 09:36 by MsUnderestimated

Shepard Smith got to interview Steve Centanni & Olaf Wiig today on Studio B, and it was yet another insight to their 13-day ordeal in captivity. You can see the relief on Shep’s face, and hear it in his voice. You can especially see/hear it in Steve and Olaf today - perhaps a bit more rested.

I was having the same “thought” (read “fear”) that Steve was: the 5th anniversary of 9/11 coming up, and Steve thought about that… and so did I. But thank God they’re home. Watch Shep’s interview with them here.

Now on to Greta….

I was checking around the web today, and I found Greta Van Susteren’s blog. Her entry from today was truly heartfelt, and revealed that there was more to Steve and Olaf’s story than they could tell last night. Well, of course! They were gone 13 days, and a lot happened then. Here are some of Greta’s reflections from her interview last night:

I hope you watched last night’s show: an entire hour with Steve Centanni, his brother, Olaf Wiig, his wife and Jennifer Griffin. I enjoyed doing the interview — in fact, I was thrilled to do it. It is not often that I get to do a very important story, a story that is very personal to all of us and which has a good ending!

My job was essentially to say “go” and then they told the riveting story of the kidnapping and the efforts to free them. I had no heavy lifting in this show. I did find a huge challenge: How do you condense 13 days each with a 24 harrowing hours into a one-hour show with commercials? At the end of the show I felt disappointed that you did not hear more — there is so much more to this story.

But as I hoped, she did not forget about Jennifer Griffin:

By the way, how about Jennifer Griffin and her Jerusalem bureau chief? They are tough and determined! They are also very smart, but you know that if you have watched their work. That is obvious.

With all the trouble in the Middle East, I have gotten to know Jennifer Griffin. I can’t say enough good things about her and her work as a journalist. She is truly amazing. She is one of those people who when I walk past a television and hear her talking, no matter what I am doing, what time it is, whether it is a day off or not, I always stop. I always learn something from her.

I sat on the sidelines on this one — safely in my studio and not in Gaza — and watched and, of course, worried, but having seen the efforts and the product of my colleagues in this crisis has made me enormously proud to be a colleague.

Now THAT’S a heart-warming story. You can read all of Greta’s blog entry here.

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