CNN is just having a dickens of a time finding unbiased “reporters” and anchors these days. Most don’t seem to have the self discipline to contain their emotions during newscasts and interviews. But finally the nation may have seen where CNN’s threshhold just may be.
Octavia Nasr, CNN’s Senior ME correspondent, found herself canned by the nation’s second media news giant after twittering her sorrow over the death of Hezbollah terrorist, Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. She spent the next hours trying to undo what she had done with more clarification:
Facing an immediate and harsh backlash, she
backpeddledback pedaled (duh… thanks, DaNang…. careless error) Tuesday in a blog post, saying she didn’t endorse the life work of Fadlallah – who was labeled a terrorist by US officials.“Not the kind of life to be commenting about in a brief tweet. It’s something I deeply regret,” she wrote. Still, she praised Fadlallah for being a pioneer on “woman’s rights,” and warning Muslim men against abusing their wives.
Despite recognizing an instant faux pas, her backpeddling wasn’t going to cut the mustard with CNN’s heads, who rightly noted her “credibility” was shot. But then, to listen to the lib/prog site, Think Progress, they’re convinced that CNN “caved” to “right wing neocons”….. right. Since when? heh
So that’s one down. Got a few more that should go. How about Susan Roesgen, and her decidedly less professional encounter at an April 2009 tea party? See the videos at FreedomEden blogsite, and here’s the transcript below:
SUSAN ROESGEN: (Reading some of the signs held by protesters) Uh, let’s see… ‘Drop the taxes,’ ‘Drop socialism.’ OK. Let’s see. You’re here with your two-year-old and you’re already in debt. Why are you here today, sir?
MAN: Because I hear a president say that he believed in what Lincoln stood for. Lincoln’s primary thing was he believed that people had the right to liberty, and had the right…
ROESGEN: Sir, what does this have to do with taxes? What does this have to do with your taxes? Do you realize that you’re eligible for a $400 credit…?
MAN: Let me finish my point. Lincoln, Lincoln believed that people had the right to share in the fruits of their own labor and that government should not take it. And we have clearly gotten to that point.
ROESGEN: Wait, wait… Did you know that the state of Lincoln gets $50 billion out of the stimulus? That’s $50 billion for this state, sir.
MAN: Ma’am, ma’am, ma’am, I…I…I…
MAN #2: Sir, sir, sir…
MAN: Can you stop this, sir? Hold on, hold on.
ROESGEN: OK, well, Kyra, we’ll move on over here. I think you get the general tenor of this. Uh, it’s anti-government, anti-CNN, since this is highly promoted by the Right-wing conservative network, FOX. And since I can’t really hear much more, and I think this is not really family viewing. Toss it back to you, Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS: I know Susan Roesgen is having a hard time hearing me, but wow. That is the prime example of what we’re following across the country there. Susan pointed out everything plain and clear of what she’s dealing with.
sigh…. since when are reporters on the scene supposed to be editorializing during an interview? Perhaps we should remind her that David Gregory has already filled Tim Russert’s seat at MTP.
But wait, there’s more… Breitbart’s got one of the CNN anchors of their morning show, American Morning, sympathizing with the Times Square bomber’s family after their house got foreclosed on. WTF? Below is a slightly longer blurb…
This, of course, dredges up 2006 memories of CNN’s int’l correspondent, Nic Robertson, and his led-by-Hezbollah’s-nose coverage in Beirut. Prior to this little episode, his major claim to fame was a 2001 mention by People Magazine as being the sexiest news correspondent.
Back on July 18, Hezbollah took Robertson and his crew on a tour of a heavily damaged south Beirut neighborhood. The Hezbollah “press officer” even instructed the CNN camera: “Just look. Shoot. Look at this building. Is it a military base? Is it a military base, or just civilians living in this building?”
In his original story, Robertson had no complaints about the journalistic limitations of a story put together under such tight controls, and Robertson himself at one point seemed to agree with the Hezbollah propaganda claim that Israeli jets had targeted a civilian area: “As we run past the rubble, we see much that points to civilian life, no evidence apparent of military equipment.”
Challenged by Reliable Sources host (and Washington Post media writer) Howard Kurtz on Sunday, Robertson suggested Hezbollah has “very, very sophisticated and slick media operations,” that the terrorist group “had control of the situation. They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn’t have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath,” and he even contradicted Hezbollah’s self-serving spin: “There’s no doubt that the [Israeli] bombs there are hitting Hezbollah facilities.”
But the closest Robertson came to making any of these points in the taped package that aired last week was admitting that “we [he and his CNN crew] didn’t go burrowing into all the houses,” after pointing out (for the second time) that “we didn’t see any military type of equipment” in the area Hezbollah chose to let them tour.
Five days later, Robertson argued that “journalistic integrity” required skepticism: “When you hear their [Hezbollah’s] claims, they have to come with more than a grain of salt, that you have to put in some journalistic integrity. That you have to point out to the audience and let them know that this was a guided tour by Hezbollah press officials along with their security, that it was a very rushed affair.”
Roesgen, the CNN anchor, and Robertson are, of course, still gainfully employed. But one can always hope the “neocon right wingers” can once again influence CNN’s head honchos… /snark
And we should all be grateful this isn’t about MSNBC reporters…. it would be a much longer post!
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
“CNN is just having a dickens of a time finding unbiased “reporters” and anchors these days”
I thought one of the requirements to get hired by CNN was to be biased.
Maybe they are taking a lesson from Air America. You can’t keep spewing liberal hatred for George Bush and other conservatives and expect us to listen to it. The only viewers they have left are the liberals themselves. Maybe they are finally realizing they have to try to get some conservative viewers back to stay in business. This is one reason I don’t miss not having cable.
i have cable and i will not watch any news outlet except fox. i rarely watch tv news anyway. i love the internet.
They aren’t looking for unbiased reporters. . . only ones that are more clever.
And, for the other side of the Octavia Naser story, see http://www.fair.org/blog/#post-15069
To be ‘fair and balanced’, there’s always another side.
For a more complete statement of Octavia Naser’s sentiments on the matter, see http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/06/nasr-explains-controversial-tweet-on-lebanese-cleric/
It seems that some people are more prone to putting down one network or another, and in so doing do not offer the complete story.
Sorry, I can’t resist… a minor nit to pick. It’s “backpedal” not “backpeddle”. I know you strive foe excellence.
Fadullah was also a great favorite of our Iraqi government Here is the praise that he received from Malikihttp://www.juancole.com/ BUT THE SURGE WORKED !!! we got rid of Iran’s biggest enemy and put in their best friend
Actually, Susan Roesgen was fired in July of last year. ( http://www.foundingbloggers.com/wordpress/2009/07/susan-roesgen-fired-from-cnn/ )
Not defending CNN mind you, just saying.
Another thing I haven’t heard mentioned…. Naser has worked at CNN for 20 some years. that puts her in the correct time line to have been part of Eason Jordan’s Iraq Cover up where he cooperated with Sadaam Hussein. ( http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/CNNs_Iraqi_Cover-Up.asp )
It would be nice if someone responsible bought CNN (and MSNBC for that matter) and turned them into responsible news outlets.
It would also be nice if I were taller. Guess which has the higher odds of happening?
@tadcf
To be fair to Mata, she included some comments from Nasr explaining her tweet. The fact is though, that someone who is supposed to to be one of CNN’s senior ME correspondent has no business tweeting a praise of someone who has called for armed conflict and destruction of Israel, another ME country, and still be able to hold any credibility, or journalistic integrity, when reporting on events in the region, specifically those dealing with Israel and Hezbollah. Regardless of Fadullah’s views on women, the man was considered a terrorist by the government and ranted against any US involvement in the region, including issuing a fatwa forbidding Muslims from helping the US in it’s ‘occupation’ of any Muslim country.
@johngalt: thanks for noticing, johngalt… even if @tadcf didn’t as a matter of talking points convenience. This will not, however, stop tadcf from defending her position of “respect” for a murdering terrorist conflicting with her credibility as a journalist.
And as far as network bashing, I’d say that prize needs to go to Roesgen.
As far as our drive by, one hit amoeba wonder, @John ryan goes, no surprise that Juan Cole is busy defending her. However it’s one thing for a neighboring nation leader to have co-existing relationships, especially when many in Iraq have family members in Iran. Iraq, now an Arab democracy that is more friendly to the western nations, should have relations with Iran, however cautious. They are tied in many familial ways. duh…. However Maliki is not employed as, in theory, an ethical and non biased journalist. His opinions of the cleric are unrelated to Nasr’s plight.
@MaaddMaaxx, it’s true that CNN and Roesgen have, or will be, parting ways. The difference between Roesgen and Nasr is that the latter was fired on the spot while CNN opted not to renew Roesgen’s contract. I don’t know when that contract is, or was, up, but she was back on the air after a couple of weeks sojourn, covering Drew Peterson, and after that, the Michael Jackson death. Where she is now, dunno… don’t care. So it’s a “half true” she was fired. More like they opted for an expiration date in the relationship.
Dang, @DaNang67… 😆 … what a glaring error on my part! 😳 This was one of my fast posts. Not the kind that generally takes hours or days to research. And my self-editing was deplorable. Thanks for the heads up. But I have to say that, in this case, it might be worthy of coining a new version of “back peddling” since they sure are peddling BS. heh
What ever happened to Peter Arnett? Hell he set the high standards for CNN un-biased reporting.
CNN- the most busted name in news. Again! Again!, etc.
@MaaddMaaxx: “It would also be nice if I were taller.”
I’d rather have you short on the outside and tall on the inside than tall on the outside and short on the inside.
I have written on different blogs and have suggested to the RNC that some wealthy conservative or a group of them should buy one of the failed newspapers or other media and turn it into a neutral publication where they just report the news. The reason the propaganda media are failing is the same reason Air America failed: Only liberals listen to or watch them.
I am a retired truck driver and call myself a neutralist in learning things. I want as much information as I can get before I decide about something. I usually listened to conservative talk radio while driving down the highways, but heard about Air America and figured I would give it a try.
All they did was preaching hatred for George Bush and republicans. One time I was listening to it and was just about ready to change the channel when the host said, “If you’re a republican, you’re stupid.” I switched channels and never went back. Last I heard they never got one advertiser for the shows. The general public are switching channels like I did.
@Buffalobob: You answered your own question.
I read Peter’s book a long time ago. The one he wrote about his coverage of the first gulf war. It was about 12 pages long. I picked it up off a close-out bin in a grocery store for a dollar. He fancied himself as a world reporter with no particular loyalties to any country or cause. He never missed an opportunity to accuse American and coalitions troops of being war criminals. Nor did he hesitate to invent or embellish an incident if it made for better copy.