How Palkot Survived an Attack in Cairo

On the front lines, in the middle of the action, at the tip of the spear—that’s where reporters like Fox News correspondent Greg Palkot always want to be. But what happens when you find yourself a little too close to the story, caught up in a melee of thousands of protestors, fighting not for the best interview or angle, but for your very life?

A week after former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s departure from office, Egypt’s awesome lurch toward a free and democratic—hope, hope—state now seems almost natural, preordained. But before thirty years of oppression could finally give way to Cairo becoming the world’s largest, loudest street party, a violent wave of attacks flooded the city’s streets.

For two long days pro-government thugs descended on Cairo’s Tahrir Square—the uprising’s epicenter—attacking basically anyone in sight. Hundreds died. Western journalists reporting from the square were targeted. And caught up in the mayhem was veteran Fox News Middle East correspondent Greg Palkot and his cameraman Olaf Wiig. In one of the most harrowing ordeals of any journalist in Tahrir, the men were beaten nearly to death, temporarily “saved” by the Egyptian army, and delivered into the hands of the secret police, before finally being released and returning home. Here, Palkot described what he calls his “adventure” to GQ.