Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship, intimidated by the Bush administration and Fox News

USATODAY ^ | 09/14/03 | Peter Johnson

[Pikamax]

Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship." As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.

[Az Joe]

Shut up Aman-impure. Wasn't she married to Peter Arnett?

[america-rules]

My BP was going up too much until the quote

"Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

[Pynchon65]

Someone's wrapping her burka too tight when she plays "Saddam and the captured princess" with her Clintonista hubby.

[nutmeg]

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

Great line, Irena!

[nutmeg]

FoxFan ping!

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[Az Joe]

"...spokeswoman for Al-Qaeda"!

Oh man, that's precious!!

[nutmeg]

ping!

[nutmeg]

ping!

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[chicagolady]

CNN CENSORSHIP....

IT'S A DIRTY JOB BUT SOMEBODY HAS GOT TO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Finalapproach29er]

laughing uncontrollably. Thanks.

[bellevuesbest]

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

Touche!

[Lancey Howard]

Brown then asked Amanpour if there was any story during the war that she couldn't report.

"It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone," Amanpour said

Here, of course, Amanpour is whining that she and her ("don't-use-the-word-scandal-when-reporting-on-the-Clinton-scandals") CNN no longer felt free to do their usual liberal hatchet job. "Intimidation" had nothing to do with it - - it's always about ratings and credibility, and since the American public now have access to the truth via Fox news, CNN had no choice but to actually play it straight. What a pig.

[MEG33]

Sometimes the good guys triumph.Amanpour is anti American.

[Mr. Mojo]

Shut up Aman-impure. Wasn't she married to Peter Arnett?

I don't know, but she currently is married to ex-Clinton WH press secretary James Rubin.

[Mr. Mojo]

Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline

Shouldn't that be towed? ....unless, of course, we're talking about Dick Morris in the early days.

[MEG33]

Toed the line is correct.

[Mr. Mojo]

Oh. Thanks.

[Atchafalaya]

Maybe by slant, but she is married to James Rubin a true Clinton beleiver.

[St.Chuck]

Certainly, the confrontational press was nonexistent leading up to the war. I always assumed that war is good for the news business, so they didn't want to get in it's way too badly.

[Atchafalaya]

Your basic verbal bitch slap! MMMMM!

[ETERNAL WARMING]

BS, Amanpuke. TRUTH is intimidating and that is what censored you. There's a new kid in town and we can get the truth from them.

[kenth]

More whining from the out-of-the-mainstream left...

"Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

Nice.

[Prodigal Son]

"It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone," Amanpour said.

You know, she actually lets the cat out of the bag here with this sentence. She's upset because she felt she couldn't put a certain tone on her reports- as if the truth needs a tone. Talking about "tone"- she'd talking about the reporter's own personal slant they wish to put on the news.

[ETERNAL WARMING]

"Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

LOL She's also a spokeswoman for Palestinians. I guess her husband, RUBIN, is a globalist. I can't imagine why they would want to sell out Israel.

[MissAmericanPie]

Evidently their fear of the red area of the map is waning. They are testing the waters to see if it is safe to return to their war on America. It's time to light up their phone lines again with charges of being unpatriotic scum bags.

[RGVTx]

Here's another doozy...

((And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did." ))

CNN...the Chicken News Network...Where truth makes them quake with fear.

[Az Joe]

Riiiight, Rubin, just as bad.

[LdSentinal]

I can't imagine why they would want to sell out Israel.

I can't imagine why Rubin would mount Amanpour.

I make no apologies for the disturbing mental Polaroid.

[Heatseeker]

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

I don't know who Ms Briganti is, but I think I love her. :)

[WellsFargo94]

How can we get Amanpour to practice self-sensorship so that she can shut the huck up! Albright needs a little shuttin' the huck up herself. Let's add Clintoon Sr. and Jr. to the list. On a more proactive note, let's also include the future democratic party ticket rider Chelsea Fugly Clinton.

[Timesink]

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[MARTIAL MONK]

FWIW towed is correct. It originated as a reference to pulling canal barge traffic with tow ropes from paths along the canals. It has mutated into a "toeing" an imaginary line. The one I don't understand is how people can have a tough road to hoe.

[Leroy S. Mort]

The one I don't understand is how people can have a tough road to hoe.

That's "row to hoe", of course...speaking of hoes...

[Prodigal Son]

I was always under the impression the "toeing the line" was a reference to either standing in ranks- where a soldier might have to toe a line (ie, the inference being that everyone conforms to a certain order)- or to an arbitrary line (imagined or real) drawn in a sports event where a player would foul if he crossed the line (the implication being that everyone plays by the rules set by the arbitrary power)...

[Timesink]

Certainly, the confrontational press was nonexistent leading up to the war. I always assumed that war is good for the news business, so they didn't want to get in it's way too badly.

War is actually very bad for the news business. Ratings shoot up, but the cost of covering it is astronomical, and far less ad time is sold (because a lot of companies don't want to be seen as profiting off something so sensitive, and because much breaking war news needs to be covered nonstop, which leaves no room for commercial breaks).

The massive expenditures will pay off in the long run for Fox, which greatly increased its ratings and reach (and kept a good chunk of those new viewers permanently after the war ended, while the other two news channels lost pretty much all their gains and then some), but for practically everyone else it caused a major hit to their profit margins without any long-term positives to show for it.

[CaliGirlGodHelpMe]

IMHO, I think it's "toe the line". It refers to military rollcalls, and the way they have to put the toes of their boots exactly on a line, kinda like CNN toes the Clinton line.

As for the other, I think it's "a tough row to hoe". Now, can somebody please explain "cut the mustard"?

[FairOpinion]

I thought that CNN admitted that they were intimidated by Saddam!

[MARTIAL MONK]

That's what it's become as pulling barge traffic upstream became lost in obscurity. The identical pronunciation allowed a transmutation into current usage.

[Benrand]

"I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."

I thought censorhip was the act of covering up or using coersion to keep a reporter's printed pieces or video pieces unaired and submerged.

But she's calling it something else entirely. She's sort of accusing the Bush Adm of being too open, not allowing enough of a chance for her to lie. That is a just an odd quote. Whose fault is itr that she was "afraid"...afraid of what? There was NO coverage of the WMD issue???

[Benrand]

ANd CNN is the network that admitted it DIDN'T GIVE THE WHOLE STORY so that they could stay in Iraq. SHe's got her facts all screwed up. She should have a chat with her boss Eason Jordan, he can inform her of what censorship means.

What an loudmouth hosebag this woman is. I'd like to see her locked in one of those kiddie cells with ten Iraqi men who had their rectums pulled out of their body by Uncle Saddam, the stories of torture were stories that CNN didn't feel they needed to broadcast...

[MARTIAL MONK]

It may have become that but the origins are different. As the laborers would pull the ropes they would sing or chant to maintain cadence and the the phrase "tow the line" appears in a number of these songs and chants.

[smadurski]

for cut the mustard try this
http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-cut1.htm

[smadurski]

also try this
http://www.google.com/search?q=cut+the+mustard+origin&sourceid=opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

[MARTIAL MONK]

Of course I knew that, not being a stranger to hoes of both sorts back in my younger days. It bugs me to hear Mary Matalin or news anchors say that someone has a tough road to hoe. Where did they grow up that they had to hoe the roads?

[Robert_Paulson2]

ammon pour... is a terrorist sympathizer if not an agent herself.
everyone knows the "press" is the place to hide agents.

roast and toast...

[Post Toasties]

That stupid little bint Amanpour can't stop lying. CNN et al could always have broadcast what they damn well pleased about the Iraq war, and that's just what they did as far as the Bush Administration goes. The only thing stopping them from going more negative than they have about Iraq is that they would have done nothing but cut their throat competitively on the open media market by doing so.

[Post Toasties]

As punishment for making them look like idiots, CNN ought to reassign Amanpour to Kabul.

[moodyskeptic]

That's row to hoe. A crooked row.

thanks for the towed correx. I love this stuff.

[moodyskeptic]

It's not mustard, it's muster. as in line up for inspection.