The News CNN Kept To Itself

I saw the above op-ed piece written by Eason Jordan. It was a stunning indictment of the brutal torture used by the former Iraqi regime to keep it’s people in line. It was also a confession that CNN had purposely censored the news, so that it could protect people on the ground. While it is possible that their motives were simply to protect people on the ground, it is also true they were complicit in creating a view of the regime that didn’t include the brutal acts outlined in the op-ed piece.

Then the Washington Post reports that there may have been a lot more complicity going on behind the scenes.

” The day after one such meeting, I was on the roof of the Ministry of Information, preparing for my first “live shot” on CNN. A producer came up and handed me a sheet of paper with handwritten notes. “Tom Johnson wants you to read this on camera,” he said. I glanced at the paper. It was an item-by-item summary of points made by Information Minister Latif Jassim in an interview that morning with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jordan.

The list was so long that there was no time during the live shot to provide context. I read the information minister’s points verbatim. Moments later, I was downstairs in the newsroom on the first floor of the Information Ministry. Mr. Johnson approached, having seen my performance on a TV monitor. “You were a bit flat there, Peter,” he said. Again, I was astonished. The president of CNN was telling me I seemed less-than-enthusiastic reading Saddam Hussein’s propaganda.”

The accusation is that CNN bought access by broadcasting the regimes message and by censoring anti-regime information. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.

Anyone who thinks media presents an unbiased view of the world needs their head examined.

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