We heard the same story a few weeks ago at ABC HQ, with one key difference.

Bob Woodruff, while receiving a Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation yesterday, said he will not go back to Iraq:

“I think for the first time I’m going to tell my wife I’m not going to go back to Iraq, at least for now.”

When we spoke with Woodruff and ABC News chief David Westin two weeks ago during a screening of To Iraq And Back, the documentary of his recovery from wounds suffered in a tank blast last January, Woodruff wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a return. Westin, though, said ABC would not send Woodruff back. “He’s more vulnerable [now]. It would be the height of recklessness for ABC News to allow Bob Woodruff to go to Iraq. It’s insane.”

Woddruff shared the award with Kimberly Dozier, the CBS News reporter seriously wounded in Iraq last May, who said she does plan to return: “To all of you in Iraq, Iraqis and the international corp, I hope to join you — not right away — but sometime soon.”

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