I'm happy to hear that Richard Engel is free from captivity after his five-day ordeal, being kidnapped in Syria, where he was covering the civil war.

It appears he was taken by 'thugs' working for the regime, which may soon topple. The media coverage is largely positive for the rebels, so attacking the correspondents is one — very ineffective — way perhaps to control a message by a leader who is on his way out. I wonder if Bashar al-Assad will end up like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi or Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.

 In NBC's report, nothing was mentioned of the blackout they maintained and asked others to maintain.

I hope Engel and his team do not stop their work but it must have been tough, especially being subjected not just to the terror of being captive but also to the psychological torture of being told they were to be executed as well as seeing people killed.

Nonetheless, while NBC doesn't have to offer up that this has happened (if no one else knows) nor do they have to comment once it is reported, I don't understand a news agency that asks others not to report something, as NBC apparently did to others reporting this news. During most tragedies, many want to be left alone by the media, but media outlets, including NBC News, have to and do ignore those request because of the thirst by the rest of us to know.