The News We Kept to Ourselves (a short, must read)

NYTimes OP/ED ^ | 4/11/03 | Eason Jordan

[chiller]

ATLANTA — Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

For example, in the mid-1990's one of our Iraqi cameramen was abducted. For weeks he was beaten and subjected to electroshock torture in the basement of a secret police headquarters because he refused to confirm the government's ludicrous suspicion that I was the Central Intelligence Agency's Iraq station chief. CNN had been in Baghdad long enough to know that telling the world about the torture of one of its employees would almost certainly have gotten him killed and put his family and co-workers at grave risk.

(excerpt) Then there were the events that were not unreported but that nonetheless still haunt me. A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for "crimes," one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family's home.

I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me. Now that Saddam Hussein's regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last, these stories can be told freely.

Eason Jordan is chief news executive at CNN

[chiller]

I broke down and hit their web site to get at this one. Scary. What else do they know but aren't telling.

I find it appalling that the chief news executive at CNN could witness Saddam's torture, yet still allow the pro-Iraqi reportage they've been spewing for so long.

[Support Free Republic]

There's A Better Way To Beat The Media Clymers (And You Don't Have To Skate)!
	Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[ambrose]

bump

[MrConfettiMan]

If CNN and presumably other news organizations know information like this, just imagine what our politicians (ie. Democrats) know.

[Jeff Chandler]

>>I find it appalling that the chief news executive at CNN could witness Saddam's torture, yet still allow the pro-Iraqi reportage they've been spewing for so long.<<

Saddam may be a sadistic torturing genocidal despotic dictator, but at least he's not a white Christian conservative Rupublican man. Does that explain why they would support him over Bush?

[Scott Mahrle]

Exactly. They chose to give false impressions so they could have people in Iraq. Why didn't they pull their people out and tell the truth?

[docmcb]

It won't, but this SHOULD nail the lid on the coffin of CNN and its pretense to be "objective" and truthful.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Okay, NYT, you didn't want to endanger the lives of a few Iraqi's. But why did you endanger the lives of MILLIONS? And why did you rail AGAINST the liberation of Iraq? Stupid wankers.

[capitan_refugio]

By not reporting the crimes, CNN became a party to them.

[Samizdat]

Reminds me of the NYT in the 30s when their man in Moscow, Walter Duranty, who was supposedly, the Times assured America, America's eyes and ears on communism, covered up the crimes of Stalin so it wouldn't give communism a bad name. Always remember, CNN, the NYT and their ilk are communists, plain and simple so be wary of anything they do or say.

[nina0113]

This is a duplicate - the discussion's been going on all night here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/890515/posts

[Paraclete]

Looks like news organizations are only human, too. And weak ones at that.

[Servant of the Nine]

Previolusly Posated Here

So9

[BureaucratusMaximus]

I don't mean do act like the post police, but this is definitely a duplicate. :)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/890515/posts

[SAMWolf]

12 years late and a dollar short!

[Countyline]

Doesn't it demonstrate how willingly they prostitute theirselves to keep CNN allowed in Bagdad or anywhere else?

It isn't about the truth ... it is about ratings ... or so it seems ...

[Countyline]

"Always remember, CNN, the NYT and their ilk are communists, plain and simple so be wary of anything they do or say."

Wise words indeed ...

[stuartcr]

With media businesses, it's always the ratings, never the truth.

[Kay Soze]

So CNN with this knowlegde for over a decade was a co conspirator with Saddam .

As were Susan Srandon, Matt Damon, Ed Asner, Martin Sheen,
George Clooney, Tim Robbins, Mike Farell, David Ducouvney, NBC, CBS,ANSWER.

They knew and were not moved to help these people.

Speak volmnes of their morals and ethics.

And YES I AM QUESTIONING THEIR PATRIOTISIM!!!!

The smoking Gun has been found in Atalanta!

With peices of their WMD systems stored at various liberal homes in Hollywood and Mailibu.