Casualty of War
Curiously, what he was saying was nothing new - he questioned how well the campaign was going for the Coalition, saying that resistance had been tougher than perhaps they had expected. He had said much the same thing in his reports to NBC, as had dozens of correspondents reporting back to their own news organizations.
But his ill-judged comments brought a storm down around his head. The New Zealand-born veteran was accused of 'bringing succour' to the enemy, because his words would have been used as anti-Coalition propaganda by Saddam's publicity machine. Which is almost certainly true. But it's not as simple as that.
Arnett himself says "I report the truth of what is happening here in Baghdad and will not apologise for it."
His friend and colleague Peter Martin - a journalist working at Coalition military HQ in Qatar - says Arnett had been inundated with requests for interviews, because of his long experience as a war correspondent and because he had covered the 1991 Gulf War for CNN.
He thought he was doing the interview just to be 'polite', and Martin admits that Arnett probably erred when deciding to do the interview. So it wasn't so much what he said, or whether it was true, but where he was seen saying it.
But the criticism in the United States has been fierce.
Reed Irvine, the chairman of the US lobby group Accuracy in Media, says NBC was absolutely right to sack Arnett.
He says his group campaigns for accuracy from journalists, and says Arnett has been inaccurate in his reporting, and that he appeared to be sympathising with the Iraqi regime.
When asked about his future, Arnett made a comment which seemed to point to at least a small amount of homesickness - "There's a small island in the South Pacific I'll try to swim to."
So where is the truth in all this? Goodness knows, I suspect it will be years before it really comes out.
I have been writing and sub-editing reports about the war for the domestic radio audience here in New Zealand, and despite following the conflict's progress closely, I cannot honestly say I have a complete picture of what is going on. It's all those reporters in the field. They come in with their 'breaking news' flashes, alerting us to a bomb blast in Baghdad, a plane crash near Basra, a firefight outside Umm Qasr... but we don't see the whole picture. It's like trying
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