No blood for journalism?

04.11.2003

We're hearing the stories CNN never wanted to tell (via Winds of Change). The news will soon fill w/ stories of news networks that deliberately kept quiet about Hussein's atrocities in order to stay in Baghdad. After all, they didn't want to be scooped, right?

I must give respect to Al Jazeera here. A few days into the war, Iraqi authorities tried intimidating a staff member. The network publicly denounced the act, announced it would stop broadcasting from Baghdad, and recalled all its reporters. Days later, they were asked back in by the Iraqis w/ promises of less restrictions.

CNN, on the other hand, seemed willing to let its staff be tortured and even killed. And they never reported it. Despicable. Here's more.

And then there's UN weapons inspector turned peace activist Scott Ritter:

The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children - toddlers up to pre-adolescents - whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.

When truth is sacrificed for political consistency, we live in a dangerous world.

Posted by Miguel at 01:17 PM

Comments

I had met an Iraqi man at the Green Mill a few months ago- he told me, without going into detail, that Saddam was a madman and guilty of crimes unimaginable against his people. It's hard to know wether or not to trust someone you just met, but now that all this information is being made public, it just makes me sick to think that people Saddam continue to do the horrible things that they do. How did it ever get to this?

I am discusted to read about CNN's complicancy. Isn't there legislation against that kind of behaviour?

Posted by: vanessa at April 11, 2003 06:47 PM

Yep, it's tragic. How did it come to this, indeed! The CNN bit might be the tip of the iceberg. If you read the piece in TNR, the interview w/ the CNN bureau editor is disturbing. He conceded that bad things happened and that they were covering up the truth. But CNN was "expected" to be in Baghdad, so they did everything they could to stay there. In the end, of course, they were kicked out (along w/ a few other American networks). Which makes me wonder, however, how much more complicity did networks like the BBC (which was there up to the bitter end) give the Iraq regime?

Posted by: miguel at April 11, 2003 08:13 PM