In fact, this most recent debacle masquerading as a presidential debate raises serious questions about whether CNN is ethically or professionally suitable to play the political role the Democratic and Republican parties recently have conceded it.
Selecting a president is, more than ever, a life and death business, and a news organization that consciously injects itself into the process, as CNN did by hosting Wednesday's debate, incurs a special responsibility to conduct itself in a dispassionate and, most of all, disinterested fashion. When one considers CNN's performance, however, the adjectives that leap to mind are corrupt and incompetent.
Corruption is a strong word. But consider these facts: The gimmick behind Wednesday's debate was that the questions would be selected from those that ordinary Americans submitted to the video sharing Internet website YouTube, which is owned by Google. According to CNN, its staff culled through 5,000 submissions to select the handful that were put to the candidates. That process essentially puts the lie to the vox populi aura the association with YouTube was meant to create. When producers exercise that level of selectivity, the questions -- whoever initially formulated and recorded them -- actually are theirs.
That's where things begin to get troubling, because CNN chose to devote the first 35 minutes of this critical debate to a single issue -- immigration. Now, if that leaves you scratching your head, it's probably because you're included in the 96% of Americans who do not think immigration is the most important issue confronting this country. We've got a pretty good fix concerning what's on the American mind right now, because the nonpartisan and highly reliable Pew Center has been regularly polling people since January on the issues that matter most to them. In fact, the center's most recent survey was conducted in the days leading up to Wednesday's debate.
It would not be out of line to express concern that Christiane Amanpour’s purpose in making her CNN special, “God’s Holy Warriors,” was to float a theory about a Jewish conspiracy in the U.S. and to float innuendoes with anti-Semitic undertones.
Critics have already highlighted the program’s multiple distortions, questionable “experts” and troubling bias. But these critiques do not get to the darker message lurking beneath it. Amanpour’s documentary intended to teach people (1) that Israel and the “illegal” Israeli settlements are the root of Middle Eastern turmoil and increasing extremism; (2) that the world’s only superpower, the US, supports Israel and turns a blind eye to the settlements only because of the power of the Jewish lobby, and (3) that the newly developing pro-Israel Christian and Jewish partnership poses a fundamentalist threat to American values.
All these charges carry undercurrents of classic anti- Semitism that need to be exposed and challenged.
The very fact that Amanpour introduced the program with Jews and Israeli settlements implied that they are a primary problem. She said as much, claiming that the battle over Jerusalem is the heart of the conflict in the Middle East, and that the Jewish presence there and in the West Bank “inflames the Muslim world.” This is a standard anti-Semitic trope. If only the Jews weren’t there or were under control-be it in 12th century England, 15th century Spain, 20th century Germany, the 21st century West Bank and Gaza, and Jerusalem-the world would be a better place, and conflict would subside. The Jews’ presence, and the fact that they dare to assert rights, is inherently sinister.
Amanpour reinforced this message by focusing on the few, isolated examples of Jewish terrorism in order to equate it with Islamic terrorism. In effect, this equivalence becomes another anti-Semitic trope for the implication is that Jewish terrorism is more widespread than most viewers would have thought, that Israeli Jews are as much perpetrators as victims of terrorism and of the conflict itself.
We don't see any Christians rampaging through streets, calling for "Fatwah's." and suicide bombing civillians. We certainly don't see them ramming Jets into high buildings filled with thousands of innocents, do we?
What should be the consequences of C.N.N.'s shoddy and disreputable behavior?
I'll leave that to the experts. Be that as it may, I am sure that I speak for millions of Americans, and others, who abhor this kind of "reporting" and abuse of the News.
Perhaps, everybody can now grasp the importance of Now Public and how reporting should be done: without bias, with reliable sources, nor paid for by others, or even worse--that you want to effect a rigged election in the United States of America.
Shame on CNN: Corrupt News Network
Tags: lies | C.N.N. | corrupt news network | Culture | Debate | deceipt | facts | FAIRNESS | Now Public | pfgbest | pfgbestwatch | RIGGED ELECTION | sham
No comments:
Post a Comment