FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in
Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
ACTION ALERT:
CNN Says Focus on Civilian
Casualties Would Be "Perverse"
November 1, 2001
According to the Washington Post (10/31/01), CNN
Chair Walter Isaacson "has
ordered his staff to balance images of civilian
devastation in Afghan cities
with reminders that the Taliban harbors
murderous terrorists, saying it
'seems perverse to focus too much on the
casualties or hardship in
Afghanistan.'"
Post media reporter Howard Kurtz quotes a memo from
Isaacson to CNN's
international correspondents: "As we get good reports
from
Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, we must redouble our efforts to make
sure we
do not seem to be simply reporting from their vantage or perspective.
We
must talk about how the Taliban are using civilian shields and how
the
Taliban have harbored the terrorists responsible for killing close to
5,000
innocent people."
The memo went on to admonish reporters covering
civilian deaths not to
"forget it is that country's leaders who are
responsible for the situation
Afghanistan is now in," suggesting that
journalists should lay
responsibility for civilian casualties at the
Taliban's door, not the U.S.
military's.
Kurtz also quotes a follow-up memo from Rick Davis,
CNN's head of standards
and practices, that suggested sample language for
news anchors:
" 'We must keep in mind, after seeing reports like
this from
Taliban-controlled areas, that these U.S. military actions are in
response
to a terrorist attack that killed close to 5,000 innocent people in
the
U.S.' or, 'We must keep in mind, after seeing reports like this, that
the
Taliban regime in Afghanistan continues to harbor terrorists who
have
praised the September 11 attacks that killed close to 5,000 innocent
people
in the U.S.,' or 'The Pentagon has repeatedly stressed that it is
trying to
minimize civilian casualties in Afghanistan, even as the Taliban
regime
continues to harbor terrorists who are connected to the September 11
attacks
that claimed thousands of innocent lives in the U.S.' "
Davis stated that "even though it may start
sounding rote, it is important
that we make this point each
time."
The New York Times reported (11/1/01) that these
policies are already being
implemented at CNN, with other networks following
a similar, though perhaps
not as formalized, strategy. "In the United
States," the Times noted,
"television images of Afghan bombing victims are
fleeting, cushioned between
anchors or American officials explaining that
such sights are only one side
of the story." In other countries, however,
"images of wounded Afghan
children curled in hospital beds or women rocking
in despair over a baby's
corpse" are "more frequent and
lingering."
When CNN correspondent Nic Robertson reported
yesterday from the site of a
bombed medical facility in Kandahar, the Times
reported, U.S. anchors "added
disclaimers aimed at reassuring American
viewers that the network was not
siding with the enemy." CNN International,
however, did not add any such
disclaimers.
During its U.S broadcasts, CNN "quickly switched to
the rubble of the World
Trade Center" after showing images of the damage in
Kandahar, and the anchor
"reminded viewers of the deaths of as many as 5,000
people whose 'biggest
crime was going to work and getting there on
time.'"
If anything in this story is "perverse," it's that
one of the world's most
powerful news outlets has instructed its journalists
not to report Afghan
civilian casualties without attempting to justify those
deaths. "I want to
make sure we're not used as a propaganda platform,"
Isaacson told the
Washington Post. But his memo essentially mandates that
pro-U.S. propaganda
be included in the news.
ACTION: Please tell CNN to factually report the
consequences of the U.S. war
in Afghanistan without editorializing. Including
a justification for the
bombing with every mention of civilian casualties
risks turning CNN from a
news outlet into a propaganda service.
CONTACT:
CNN, Walter Isaacson, Chairman and
CEO
Phone: (404) 827-1500
Fax: (404) 827-1784
mailto:community@cnn.com
As always, please remember that your comments are
taken more seriously if
you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with
your
correspondence.
For further details, see Howard Kurtz's full
Washington Post story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14435-2001Oct30.html
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CNN's integrity is already for sh#t...
i.e.
- the gulf war censorhip
- military ops on news staff
- fabricated distortions of civilian refugees in former Yugoslavia
- palestinian celebration footage (despite supposed "recant" from
person who made allegations, whose recantation has also been in
question)
CNN is big brother. Their only credentials are corporate and federal...