CNN Explains News Judgement Choices

AP- TV/Yahoo ^ | 4-14-03 | AP

[JustPiper]

NEW YORK - A top CNN executive kept quiet about some atrocities in Iraq (news - web sites) not because the network wanted to protect access but because it worried about putting lives in danger, CNN said Monday.

Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive, revealed the incidents in an op-ed piece in The New York Times Friday headlined "The News We Kept to Ourselves."

He said that in the mid-1990s, an Iraqi cameraman working for CNN was tortured because the government believed Jordan worked for the CIA (news - web sites). Reporting the story "would almost certainly have gotten him killed and put his family and co-workers at grave risk," Jordan wrote.

CNN also learned from Kurds that a planned attack on network employees by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s forces in Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq was thwarted a few months ago, he said.

Jordan was subsequently criticized by at least two columnists for soft-pedaling news on Iraq to maintain CNN's access to the country by its reporters.

Franklin Foer, an associate editor of New Republic magazine, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Monday that he was suspicious of Jordan's "outbreak of honesty."

But Foer wrote the he didn't see it as honesty. "If it were, Mr. Jordan wouldn't be portraying CNN as Saddam's victim. He'd be apologizing for its cooperation with Iraq's erstwhile information ministry — and admitting that CNN policy hinders truthful coverage of dictatorships."

The New York Post, owned by the same company that owns CNN competitor Fox News Channel, headlined Eric Fettemann's column, "Craven News Network."

CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson noted that CNN reporters have frequently been kicked out of Baghdad by angry authorities, most recently a few days after the start of the war.

"The decision not to report these particular events had nothing to do with access, and everything to do with keeping people from being killed as a result of our reporting," she said.

[JustPiper]

Word is getting around, it 'is' a good time to demand a Congressional or Senate Committee look into this, our emails, calls, etc would be listened to.

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[dogbyte12]

When is CNN going to be asked, and when will they answer... truthfully, what is different about their coverage in Damascas, Ramallah, or Havana?

If they bowed down to Saddam, why should we trust them when they lied about censoring themselves before?

[JustPiper]

I think CNN should bite the dust!

[Howlin]

FYI.

[caisson71]

CNN is the whore of news networks. They chose to compromise their integrity for ratings. What is the value of their "reporting" from Baghdad if it wasn't the news but propaganda? Of what worth is their current or future "reporting". They may as well say they are the spokesperson for the liberal agenda and tell the truth for once.

[CyberCowboy777]

Yes, what other news have they kept to themselves?

[Fred Mertz]

More attempts at fig leaf coverage.

CNN is despicable!

[The G Man]

NO BLOOD FOR RATINGS!!

[Orangedog]

That's kinda catchy!

[demkicker]

"A top CNN executive kept quiet about some atrocities in Iraq (news - web sites) not because the network wanted to protect access but because it worried about putting lives in danger, CNN said Monday."

This explanation is insulting. CNN is made up of radical left wing media whores, period. They willingly aided and abetted Saddam's evil regime whereby millions of people were tortured, raped and murdered.

Had CNN done its job and reported the TRUTH about Saddam, some "lives may have been put in danger", but tens of thousands could have been saved by their exposure of his constant maniacal tyranny.

Eason Jordon made the mistake of thinking his confession was just another news story. His story proved what conservatives have known for years. CNN is dishonest and disgraceful, and it is the last network one should watch to get the truth.

[maranatha]

That Jordan should spill this to NYTimes is very curious. Knowing what they are, why do this? Do you think the military is going to find documents about CNN in all their information gathering in Iraq agencies?

[Howlin]

Did you get backhoe's mega list of CNN stories today?

[JustPiper]

Yes, what other news have they kept to themselves?

Eight years of Clinton!

[Torie]

Slanting the news to get access is standard operating procedure alas among far to many reporters. An network endorsing it however publically is rather unusual. In any event, it is good that this is all coming to light. The next time CNN covers an area ruled by a brutal dictator, I hope and trust that many will ask if CNN or whomever is doing something similar. Make them sweat, and then make them sweat some more. God how I love it.

[JustPiper]

NO BLOOD FOR RATINGS!!

Bump I suggest every Freeper mail just these words and only these words to CNN on a daily basis. Therein lies our activist campaign, flood their email. When that happens, call them say No Blood For Ratings! Call your congressmen and Say No Blood For Ratings! Just get creative and keep in short, succint:

NO BLOOD FOR RATINGS!!!

[Temple Owl]

bump

[JustPiper]

Did you get backhoe's mega list of CNN stories today?

It would be good to know just who is reporting it and who is not.

[Mia T]

CNNs of Commission
Either they are obsolete… or civilization is Q ERTY8 ^BUMP!

[Howlin]

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