CNN's Access of Evil: The network of record covered Saddam's repression with propaganda

Opinion Journal ^ | 04/14/03 | FRANKLIN FOER

[Pokey78]

As Baghdad fell last week, CNN announced that it too had been liberated. On the New York Times' op-ed page on Friday, Eason Jordan, the network's news chief, admitted that his organization had learned some "awful things" about the Baathist regime--murders, tortures, assassination plots--that it simply could not broadcast earlier. Reporting these stories, Mr. Jordan wrote, "would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff."

[Pokey78]

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[Travis McGee]

Media Whores Ping.

[JustPiper]

Pokey, File this at the suggestion for a new topic at FR:

The News they keep to themselves.

[KingKongCobra]

Well here then, I mailed two days ago. Yall take a turn -

Brad.Turell@turner.com
Walter.Isaacson@turner.com
Rick.Davis@turner.com
Eason.Jordan@Turner.com
stevecase@aol.com
allfeedback@cnn.com

[hotpotato]

What's amazing is they seem to show no remorse. The article was out and it's business as usual at CNN. They are hoping we will forget. I haven't. I watched them a lot during the war and now.... I find watching them turns my stomach. "The Most Trusted News" is to me now, "The Most Dishonest News." I just wish FOX News would get some better weekend people (in addition to Tony Snow and News Watch which other FRs reported failed to mention the CNN scandal).

[Hildy]

Ready...set.....go.....

[Hildy]

Why was #8 deleted...I was staying up just to read the responses. Drats.

[laz17]

The implications of this article, the full depth of the crimes CNN has committed, are flabbergasting. Jordan's confession is almost matter-of-fact, just skimming along the surface of CNN's depravity, but if you scratch that surface and read between the lines, the full impact of their behavior is far more than the few details he recounts. For twelve years, CNN not only suppressed the truth, they reported Saddam's propaganda just to keep their office in Baghdad and keep their staff from being tortured and killed. They have functioned as the Iraqi Ministry of Propaganda, spreading Saddam's lies all over the world and increasing anti-Americanism everywhere.

CNN isn't just complicit in torture and murder. CNN also served as a bonafide mouthpiece for Saddam's regime, for twelve long years, parroting Saddam's lies while portraying him as a victim of American lies. They NEVER reported objectively, because doing so would have threatened their staff and gotten them kicked out of Baghdad. When faced with the prohibition of reporting the truth, they failed to do the honorable thing, which was to pull its staff out and leave Baghdad. They chose to remain, even though it meant they were forced to report Saddam's lies. By covering up what was going on in Iraq, they condemned thousands of Iraqis to death over those twelve years, and despite knowing what was going on, they did their damnedest to fan the flames of anti-war fervor and portray Bush as a criminal. Even now, they continue to slant their news against Bush and the war, when they know Saddam was guilty as sin. And they do this even though Saddam is no longer around to threaten them. They made a pact with the devil which they cannot break, even now, and the damage they have done is incalculable.

This article was first posted a couple of days ago, and there's tons of discussion on that thread:

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

[Kay Soze]

"For CNN, the highest prize is "access," to score live camera feeds from a story's epicenter."

If CNN were around in 1939 they would deny Germany was building concentration camps in exchange for an exclusive interview with Eva Braun.

Typical Liberal mind set: Whats in it for me, where's my government check?

[Jeff Chandler]

I think that most people are missing the real point of all of this. Sure Saddam was a sadistic madman, but at least he wasn't George Bush. It doesn't matter to these people that they were used. They were happy to be used. Their hatred of conservatives, George Bush, and America in general trumps all to this very day.

[machman]

By covering up what was going on in Iraq, they condemned thousands of Iraqis to death over those twelve years, and despite knowing what was going on, they did their damnedest to fan the flames of anti-war fervor and portray Bush as a criminal. Even now, they continue to slant their news against Bush and the war, when they know Saddam was guilty as sin. And they do this even though Saddam is no longer around to threaten them. They made a pact with the devil which they cannot break, even now, and the damage they have done is incalculable.

Just what i was going to say. And let's not let people forget what CNN has done.

[Brian Allen]

And let us not be so blinded by the awful revelations of CNN's [AND BBC's and Reuters' and AP's et al] criminal conspiracy and having been accessory to rape and murder and torture and lying and looting and other horrors in Baghdad that we lose site of the media' whores' willing participation in endless criminal activites with the petty and not-so-petty dictators of all of its client states.

In Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Rangoon, Khartoum and Karachi, Moscow and Peking -- and until not all that long ago in the KKKli'toons' "administration," CNN et al serve only their own interests -- and those of their Evil, gangster-politician client-state masters

[Aquinasfan]

Media whores

That sums it up.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

THANK YOU for posting the link to the original NYT article!

I knew all along that I wanted to bookmark it, from the moment Rush Limbaugh discussed it. I was in my car at the time, and by the time I could get to a computer all I was finding was critiques like this Opinion Journal piece, not the original mea culpa.

[Travis McGee]

Alive and well, streetwalking for Fidel in Havana today.

[jimt]

Media whores

Or, as I believe eureka first put it, PRESSTITUTES !

[eureka!]

Re#19 JohnHuang2 has credited me with that phrase. Been using it for years now. Honestly, can't remember if I made it up or caught it here. Not to worry, no copyright. It sure has gotten popular. Others are "pressholes" and "mediots". See you around....