LONDON,
February 26 (IslamOline.net & News Agencies) – Potential
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would definitely be subject to a lot of
censorship from the U.S. media itself, let alone the U.S. wartime
administration, said a leading British writer and the former Middle
East Independent correspondent.
“The
boys from CNN, CBS, ABC and
The New York Times will be "embedded" among
the U.S. marines and infantry. The degree of censorship hasn't quite
been worked out,” Robert Fisk said in an article published Tuesday,
February 25, in the British daily the Independent.
Fisk
revealed that the CNN intends to apply a
“censorship” system entitled “Script Approval” to the coverage
of the looming war, reassuring the Pentagon officials that there is no
cause for concern at all about the news coming from the battlefield.
“It
doesn't matter how much the Pentagon cuts from the reporters'
dispatches. A new CNN system of "script
approval" – the iniquitous instruction to reporters that they
have to send all their copy to anonymous officials in Atlanta to
ensure it is suitably sanitised – suggests that the Pentagon and the
Department of State have nothing to worry about. Nor do the
Israelis,” he wrote.
According
to the new systems, all reporters preparing package scripts must
submit the scripts for approval to an “authorized manager to be
approved for air…when a script is updated it must be re-approved,
preferably by the originating approving authority.”
“All
packages originating outside Washington, LA (Los Angeles) or NY (New
York), including all international bureaus, must come to the ROW in
Atlanta for approval," read the CNN-drafted
approval document.
The
"ROW" is the row of script editors in Atlanta who can insist
on changes or "balances" in the reporter's dispatch, said
Fisk.
‘APPROVED’
 |
|
“We
are going to have to see a U.S. army officer denying everything
the Iraqis say,” Fisk
|
Fisk
further said the new computerised system of script approval will allow
authorised script approvers to mark scripts (reports) in a clear and
standard manner.
“Script
EPs (executive producers) will click on the coloured APPROVED button
to turn it from red (unapproved) to green (approved). When someone
makes a change in the script after approval, the button will turn
yellow." Someone? Who is this someone? CNN's
reporters aren't told,” Fisk said.
“Note
the key words here: "approved" and "authorised".
CNN's man or woman in Kuwait or Baghdad – or Jerusalem or Ramallah
– may know the background to his or her story; indeed, they will
know far more about it than the "authorities" in Atlanta.
But CNN's chiefs will decide the spin of the story,” Fisk
sarcastically added.
Fisk
further accused CNN and other U.S. networks of
“operating anti-journalistic systems, noting that it was not the
fault of the reporters.
“CNN's
teams may use clichés and don military costumes – you will see them
do this in the next war – but they try to get something of the truth
out. Next time, though, they're going to have even less chance,” he
said.
Ramallah
is Case in Point
The
British respected writer further gave an example of the CNN
“awful system” adopted also by the U.S. network in its coverage of
the Israeli incursions on the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah.
“This
awful system is evident from an intriguing exchange last year between CNN's
reporter in the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, and Eason Jordan,
one of CNN's top honchos in Atlanta. The journalist's
first complaint was about a story by the reporter Michael Holmes on
the Red Crescent ambulance drivers who are repeatedly shot at by
Israeli troops,” Fisk said.
The
complaint said: "We risked our lives and went out with ambulance
drivers... for a whole day. We have also witnessed ambulances from our
window being shot at by Israeli soldiers... The story received
approval from Mike Shoulder. The story ran twice and then Rick Davis
(a CNN executive) killed it. The reason was we did not
have an Israeli army response, even though we stated in our story that
Israel believes that Palestinians are smuggling weapons and wanted
people in the ambulances.
“The
Israelis refused to give CNN an interview, only a
written statement. This statement was then written into the CNN
script. But again it was rejected by Davis in Atlanta. Only when,
after three days, the Israeli army gave CNN an interview
did Holmes's story run – but then with the dishonest inclusion of a
line that said the ambulances were shot in "crossfire" (i.e.
that Palestinians also shot at their own ambulances).”
The
relevance of this, Fisk said, is all too obvious in the next Gulf War.
“We
are going to have to see a U.S. army officer denying everything the
Iraqis say if any report from Iraq is to get on air,” he said.
