Moments after Brian Entin’s plane landed in Doha on Monday, Qatar closed its airspace in preparation for Iran’s retaliatory strikes against US military bases in the region. Iran had informed Qatar in advance of the retaliation, which was in response to the US air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.
Entin, a correspondent for start-up cable-news network NewsNation, and a photographer rented a car and started driving in order to get on location immediately for live shots. Along the way, Entin started hearing “bangs” and told the photographer to pull over. He jumped out of the car and filmed with his cell phone the exact moment when Iranian missiles and returning air defense system rockets whizzed over the Doha night sky. After the 15-hour flight and his chance encounter with the strikes overhead, Entin spent the rest of the evening appearing in live shots for NewsNation.
With the airspace closed, Entin ended up being the only American cable-news correspondent in Qatar. He argues that NewsNation’s structure as a “nimble” upstart encourages the kind of quick decision-making that allowed him the opportunity to report on the ground: “They’re not afraid to say, ‘Let’s just get on a plane,’ which is, I think, the reason that we were the only US network here.” Entin adds, “Some of the other, more old-school networks—NBC, ABC, Fox—they’ve got a lot of rules in place and a lot of red tape. Certain people cover certain topics, and there’s a certain plan that has to go into action.”
At NewsNation, there aren’t “a lot of corporate layers” preventing scrappy international reporting, according to Entin, who tells me, “I think that’s why we’re special for people who watch us.”
Entin has more than 480,000 X followers devouring his relentless true-crime coverage, but he doesn’t often get the chance to cover international news from the ground. This time around, it helped that he was able to catch a nonstop Qatar Airways flight to Doha from Miami, his home base.
His latest stint as a foreign correspondent was so different from his usual true-crime fare that some of Entin’s followers reached out to express concern that he might not make it back in time to cover the trial of Bryan Kohberger, who will be tried, starting in August, for the murders of four students at the University of Idaho. (Kohberger has pleaded not guilty.)
Entin assures me that he will be covering the proceedings in full: “Don’t worry, I’ll be back.”
Vanity Fair: I’m sure it’s been quite a hectic last few days, so I want you to walk me through it.
Brian Entin: It’s been crazy. I was in Miami when everything happened over the weekend with the decision to bomb the nuclear facilities in Iran. My coworker was already in the Middle East, Robert Sherman; he was in Israel. And my boss was like, “I think you need to get to Qatar right away because the biggest US military base in the Middle East is in Qatar. It could be threatened, and we just need to get there right away.” Luckily, there was a nonstop flight from Miami to Qatar. We were able to get on that flight at the super-last minute. It was almost sold out.
I flew out on Sunday. American Airlines and United had already canceled all their flights to Qatar because of the war. So we were able to get on this Qatar Airways flight, which was still going. It took about 15 hours because there was some closed airspace; it took longer than normal. We landed in Doha, and right when we landed—literally right after we landed—they closed the airspace. I’m pretty sure we were the last flight in. We got very lucky not getting diverted and actually being able to land in Doha. I was with a photographer who I’ve worked with a lot in the past, so we have a good relationship. We got through customs, we rented a car, and we were driving into the city, driving down the highway, when I said, “Gosh, I think I hear bangs. It almost sounds like a crack.” I couldn’t figure out what the noise was. I’m like, “Pull over, pull over.” I hopped out, and I just started shooting with my cell phone. And that was right at the moment that the rockets were being fired, really, in both directions. There were a couple of rockets that I saw were right above the skyline in Doha, that were headed for the US base. And then the majority of the rockets were from the missile defense system at the base. So they were going in both directions over Doha. I was able to get video. People who live here were also pulled over. They were really, really surprised because nothing of this nature has really ever happened here. We got right on TV a couple minutes later. We were just lucky that we got in when we did, or we wouldn’t have been able to see it for ourselves.
Was there ever a concern that Iran might retaliate in a way that further escalated the situation?
When they shut down the airspace, I had a feeling that something was going to happen and that it was almost planned to a certain extent, which ended up being kind of what the truth was. I felt like, once it was over, it was probably over. But still, I mean, seeing the rockets, there’s always a bit of just, Oh my gosh, what’s going to happen next?
Since then, there’s been a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran, at least for now. Have you felt a degree of whiplash in covering these fast-moving developments?
I think that’s a good word—whiplash. Yesterday, especially just after the long flight, not really getting much rest on the flight, and then going immediately into seeing the missiles and being on TV all night, I felt a bit of whiplash. I’ve been thinking a lot about the 10,000 American men and women at that military base in Qatar. God forbid some of the missiles had hit. So my mind was on them a lot. I think adrenaline kicks in in these situations when you’re in the right spot at the right moment, and you want to get this out a fair way and quickly.
Qatar itself occupies a very important space in terms of being a link between Iran, Israel, and the US for negotiations. I’m curious what that means for your approach in reporting on the ground, in terms of the access level.
It’s interesting reporting in a place like Qatar because, unlike the United States, there’s a lot of rules for the media. We had to get permission before we came in, which was also something that suddenly happened really quickly, right before we got on the plane. You’re not allowed to shoot a lot of locations. A lot of locations have a permit that really only allows us to shoot inside the area given to do our live shots. It’s not the most media-friendly place that we’re used to when we’re reporting back at home. It’s also a region in the middle of conflict. Sort of picking the moment of when you want to push the rules a little bit and when you need to be really, really careful to follow rules and not get yourself into trouble.
Since you have such an extensive background in reporting on true crime, I’m curious for your insights into doing international reporting on this scale.
Yeah, it was different for me. Most of my reporting has been domestically. I think that’s one of the neat things about NewsNation. Honestly, we are still an upstart, and they’re not afraid to make decisions like getting to Qatar. We knew that with a nonstop from Miami, I would be the quickest one to get there. They’re not afraid to say, “Let’s just get on a plane,” which is, I think, the reason that we were the only US network here. Some of the other, more old-school networks—NBC, ABC, Fox—they’ve got a lot of rules in place and a lot of red tape. Certain people cover certain topics, and there’s a certain plan that has to go into action. The difference is, we’re new and we’re nimble, and there’s not a lot of corporate layers. I think that’s why we’re special for people who watch us.
This is entirely unrelated, but I was looking back on a piece in Vanity Fair about your reporting on the Idaho murders. I was wondering whether you have any plans to return in August to cover the trial?
Absolutely. I’m going to cover the full trial. I stayed in touch with all the families. It’s going to be a three-month trial, so I plan to be there for sure. It’s funny—actually a few people, when I ended up here in Qatar, because a lot of my followers are really interested in that case, are like, “Are you sure you’re going to make it back in time to cover the trial?” Don’t worry, I’ll be back.
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