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CNN Blinks First, Hastens Policy Change to Appease Israel
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| Videos
of Palestinian resistance fighters will not be shown on CNN.
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WASHINGTON,
July 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Nearly a week after
Israeli Communication Minister Reuven Rivlin said he would not object
if cable stations requested to remove CNN from the basic broadcasting
package, CNN announced that it has imposed restrictions on the
broadcasting of video messages taped by “suicide bombers”, U.K.
and U.S. newspapers reported Monday.
The
messages will now carry the same status as the televised statements of
Osama bin Laden, meaning they can be broadcast only in exceptional
circumstances, with the specific approval of a small group of senior
CNN executives, reported
U.K.
daily newspaper the Guardian.
The
reason, according to a CNN executive, is that the fighters should not
be given “moral equivalence” with their victims, the paper said.
Eason
Jordan
, the CNN chief news executive who drafted the new policy, flew to the
region to meet with Israeli reporters and leaders from both sides,
reported
U.S.
newspaper, the New York Times.
Jordan
said he ordered the latest change in policy after a visit to the
Middle East
. While he accepted Palestinians were also victims, he said:
"There is no irrefutable evidence that
Israel
has set out to commit mass murder."
“But
commentators in the Middle East said CNN "blinked first" in
the stand-off with Israeli critics,” the Guardian said.
The
tension began when earlier in June, the Guardian carried an interview
with CNN founder Ted Turner, in which he said: “The rich and the
powerful, they don’t need to resort to terrorism… The Palestinians
are fighting with human suicide bombers; that’s all they have.”
“The
Israelis ... they’ve got one of the most powerful military machines
in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the
terrorists? I would make a case that both sides are involved in
terrorism,” he said.
CNN
immediately issued a statement saying Turner spoke for himself during
the interview. Walter Isaacson, the CNN chairman, gave a videotaped
statement to a media program on Israeli television, disavowing
Turner's comments and emphasizing that Turner no longer oversaw CNN.
Meanwhile,
the comments triggered protest from the Jewish community, especially
in the
United States
.
Director
of the
Simon
Wiesenthal
Center
in
Los Angeles
, Marvin Hier, said: “His remarks are obscene and over-the-line.”
In
an open letter to the media mogul, the Jewish pressure group, the
Anti-Defamation League, said it was “tragically ironic” that
Turner’s statements came the same day a bomber killed 19 Israelis in
southern
Jerusalem
.
Turner
also drew fire from Republican
U.S.
lawmaker Tom DeLay, a senior member of the House of Representatives,
who said that “Turner’s thoughts on the
Middle East
are the rant of a man with a defective moral compass.”
The
Guardian reported that Andrea Levin, director of the pro-Israeli
American media watchdog Camera, called the comments a
“reprehensible” attempt to “blur the line between perpetrator
and victim.”
Hawkish
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government condemned
Turner’s remarks, calling them “stupid,” the Guardian reported.
CNN
also found itself facing financial pressure after Rivlin, who told the
Israeli radio that CNN’s coverage was not balanced, met
Jordan
in
Israel
last week to discuss the network's coverage of events in
Israel
and the territories.
Jordan
’s arrival in
Israel
came after threats from Israeli cable and satellite companies to
replace CNN with another all-news channel. Israeli satellite
broadcaster YES decided to give the pro-Israeli Fox News equal time
with CNN. The cable companies are also looking into broadcasting Fox
News in
Israel
, reported Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz.
“If
Turner had made these foolish remarks in
Israel
, he would have been declared persona non grata, and we are
considering what to do about the network’s correspondents... [Such
reports] would not have been carried by CNN’s American network
because of the Jewish lobby,” Rivlin said.
To
attempt to mend fences, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer started filming a
five-episode program on Palestinian resistance operations, Israeli
daily newspaper, Yediot Aharanot, reported.
This
drew complaints from the Palestinians. "Do we have to pay for the
statements of Ted Turner?" said Saeb Erekat, the chief
Palestinian negotiator, quoted by the New York Times.
"I
can't believe that CNN is giving five segments a half-hour each to the
Israelis without the courtesy of showing one segment on the
Palestinian victims. I hate to see that the pressure on CNN has
affected their objectivity, as reflected in the Blitzer report."
He said CNN should do a similar series on civilian Palestinian victims
of Israeli military offensives.
A
week after Turner made his comments, he was forced to retract and sent
a letter to ADL’s National Director Abraham H. Foxman and said: “I
hope you understand that I do not morally equate
Israel
's right to defend itself with the intentional killing of innocent
civilians.
"While
I have questioned the policies of the Israeli government in the past,
that in no way should be interpreted as an absolution of Palestinian
tactics," Turner wrote.
According
to the Times, CNN now finds itself under perhaps the most intense
scrutiny in its 22-year history covering the
Middle East
. How it proceeds will be watched carefully by the rest of the media,
especially its competitors at the Fox News Channel, which has
outflanked it in the
United States
by tailoring its appeal to people who think the news media has a
liberal bias. Fox is looking to do the same in
Israel
and, eventually, the rest of the world, the paper said.
This,
said the Times, has also led to resentment among the employees of CNN.
"It
appears as if we're in an unseemly rush to try to fix things, and I
think we're going to dig ourselves into a deeper hole if we continue
this course," said one CNN staff member in
Jerusalem
, who said complaints from Israelis to the office there were coming
through loudest and with the most ferocity, reported the Times.
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