Tuesday, July 25, 2006
CNN Whores itself to Hezbollah
I guess Time Warner got bought out by Hezbollah, Inc.
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.”
While some viewers undoubtedly deduced out that it was “a guided tour” from the numerous sound bites from the Hezbollah press officer, it’s not as if Robertson ever complained about his limitations or explicitly warned viewers that there was no way he could confirm any of the claims.
Keep that in mind next time you see news reports of how many children got hit by Israeli bombs, how "entire families are being wiped out" (I actually heard that one on a radio newscast this morning), etc., etc., etc.
These fellative newspeople will air report after report about how the Israeli air campaign is killing women, maiming children, and scaring puppies, and get soundbyte after soundbyte from Hezbollah Borg in Beirut - and then close their report with a simple quant: "Hezbollah has fired over a thousand rockets at Israel in the last two weeks."
Well, these rockets are packed with tens of thousands of ball bearings, designed to cause maximum damage, pain, suffering, and death to Israeli children and anyone else who happens to be nearby.
These are not weapons designed to destroy buildings. These are dumb weapons with no tactical purpose on that battlefied. Their sole purpose is to terrorize.
Period.
Splash, out
Jason
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.”
While some viewers undoubtedly deduced out that it was “a guided tour” from the numerous sound bites from the Hezbollah press officer, it’s not as if Robertson ever complained about his limitations or explicitly warned viewers that there was no way he could confirm any of the claims.
Keep that in mind next time you see news reports of how many children got hit by Israeli bombs, how "entire families are being wiped out" (I actually heard that one on a radio newscast this morning), etc., etc., etc.
These fellative newspeople will air report after report about how the Israeli air campaign is killing women, maiming children, and scaring puppies, and get soundbyte after soundbyte from Hezbollah Borg in Beirut - and then close their report with a simple quant: "Hezbollah has fired over a thousand rockets at Israel in the last two weeks."
Well, these rockets are packed with tens of thousands of ball bearings, designed to cause maximum damage, pain, suffering, and death to Israeli children and anyone else who happens to be nearby.
These are not weapons designed to destroy buildings. These are dumb weapons with no tactical purpose on that battlefied. Their sole purpose is to terrorize.
Period.
Splash, out
Jason
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