Re: [Palestine] CNN and Innocent Victims of Violence

["Jose G. Perez" <jgperez@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think the turn by CNN on its middle east coverage is a byproduct
of the fact that the U.S. administration made a turn in its policy also in
June.

True, the CNN editorial stance is not merely to parrot the admninistration
position that everything will be fine as soon as Sharon kills Arafat, which
is the essence of Bush's Middle East Peace Plan. For one thing, Murdoch got
there first. For another, I don't believe that something as vulgar as a
phonecall with orders from some ersatz Ministry of Truth led to the
decision.

But after years of incessant sniping against CNN's coverage by the
spokespeople and the press on the Israeli side, it is not credible to
believe that one more round of criticism would have motivated a change in
CNN's policies. The change coincided with and I believe was a byproduct of
the change in U.S. policy. Those sorts of changes are transmitted and make
themselves felt in myriad ways much more effective and pernicious than mere
orders from a censorship office.

The immediate pretext for the CNN turn were complaints against a Ted Turner
statement, who had responded to some question from the British Guardian in
an interview with another question, "Aren't the Israelis and Palestinians
both terrorising each other?"

Israeli complaints about the statements by the "head of CNN" were
disingenous. It is well known that Turner, widely regarded as a bourgeois
entrepeneurial business visionary, was purged two years ago and  removed
from all direct influence and control over the Turner Broadcasting System,
and remains only as vice-chairman of the (now) AOL-Time Warner Board because
when you have a crazy uncle, it is better to have him in the attic than
running all over town.

Given that, what should have been the response of CNN was obvious: a brief
statement noting that in fact Turner has nothing more to do with CNN than
any other large AOL-TW stockholder, that CNN's editors and managers make
their own
decisions. Thus the statements and visit by top CNN honchos apologizing for
CNN's coverage sticks out all the more.

What is shows is that the head of CNN, Walter Isaacson, decided to make this
change.
All protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, it is obvious.

Just look at the current "victims of terror" cnn.com "in depth" special and
compare it with the earlier mideast special coverage sections.

The new "victims" section says, "For Israelis, the fear and pain of
terrorism have become part of daily life. CNN is committed to sharing the
stories of the victims of terror." The word terror and variants is repeated
about a dozen times on the home page of this special report. The words
Palestinian, Palestine, occupation, simply do not appear. A few -- a very
few -- Palestinian victims are inlcuded in the picture gallery but only
those who were killed by extra-official operations.

The "Chronology of Terror" subsection is equally propagandistic:

"The current Palestinian intifada began in the autumn of 2000. Since then,
more than 70 terror attacks have killed hundreds of Israelis", it says.
There is no mention of the thousands of Palestinians killed by Israeli
forces in this time frame. Nor is there any mention as to WHY the current
Palestinian intifada
began then, never mind the more than half a century of zionist and then
Israeli terrorism that preceded it.

"The violence has included suicide bombing attacks on commuter buses,
attacks on discos, weddings and pizzerias, gunfire in broad daylight on city
streets and massacres of families attacked in their homes. The victims have
been men and women; they have included the young and the elderly." What CNN
considers to be "The violence" does not include anything done by the Israeli
forces.

"Despite political and diplomatic efforts to end the violence, the attacks
have continued unabated for more than two years." Again, no mention of
Israeli attacks nor a hint they may have something to do with the problems
israeli civilians face.

What is striking is that all pretence to socalled objective journalism, that
there are two sides to every story and so on, has been dropped. There is no
hint of balance anywhwere in the section.

José

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dayne Goodwin" <dayneg@xxxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 2:20 AM
Subject: [Palestine] CNN and Innocent Victims of Violence


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 15:35:49 -0700
From: Salem Ajluni <ajluni@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: cnn.feedback@xxxxxxx, community@xxxxxxx, reliable@xxxxxxx
Cc: jill.neff@xxxxxxxxxx, kurtzh@xxxxxxxxxxxx, bernard.kalb@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: CNN and Innocent Victims of Violence




~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.