CNN controversies

CNN has not been immune from criticism in its production of news programming. These are controversies and allegations of bias that have been directed at CNN (these refer to both the domestic version of CNN and CNN International):

Operation Tailwind

In 1998, CNN, in partnership with corporate sister Time magazine, ran a report that Operation Tailwind in 1970 in Indochina included use of Sarin gas to kill a group of defectors from the United States military. The Pentagon denied the story. Skeptics deemed it improbable that such an extraordinary and risky atrocity could have gone unnoticed at the height of the Vietnam War's unpopularity. CNN, after a two-week inquiry, issued a retraction. [1]. The story's producers, April Oliver and Jack Smith, were summarily fired. April Oliver has been highly critical of CNN's handling of the story saying that CNN bowed to pressure from high-ranking officials to kill the story. Ms. Oliver describes the ordeal in Kristina Borjesson's book 'Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press (2002)'.

Accusations of bias

CNN has come under criticism by conservatives claiming that CNN has liberal bias. Critics, such as Accuracy in Media and MRC, have claimed that CNN's reporting contains liberal editorializing within news stories, and have jokingly referred to CNN as the "Clinton News Network," the "Communist News Network," "Chicken Noodle News," or "Clearly Not Neutral".[2] [3]

Some liberal observers have claimed that CNN has a conservative bias. For example, media watchdog Media Matters has documented several hundred separate instances of what it sees as conservative editorializing during CNN broadcasts [4].

It is also under fire for showing too much entertainment stories and as the founder Ted Turner said "the perverted of the day".

Lou Dobbs

In 2000, conservative business news reporter Lou Dobbs left CNN, reportedly due to heated clashes with then-president Rick Kaplan over programming priorities and questions about Kaplan's political objectivity. [5] Dobbs returned the following year at the behest of CNN founder Ted Turner.

Mr. Dobbs in 2006 again became one of CNN's most controversial hosts. His program Lou Dobbs Tonight presents itself as a voice for true conservative values and opposes the neo-conservative movement. He has gained both controversy and acclaim from negative opinions of the Bush administration and Republican congress expressed in ongoing nightly segments called "War on The Middle Class", "The Selling of America" and "Broken Borders".

Leniency towards George W. Bush administration

After 9/11

Amongst the criticisms levied against CNN, as well as the other major US news channels, is the charge that CNN took a lenient approach to the Bush administration, particularly after the terrorists attacks of September 11th 2001. At the 2002 Newsworld Asia conference held in Singapore, Rena Golden, the executive vice-president and general manager of CNN International, was quoted as saying: "Anyone who claims the US media didn’t censor itself is kidding you. It wasn’t a matter of government pressure but a reluctance to criticize anything in a war that was obviously supported by the vast majority of the people. And this isn’t just a CNN issue — every journalist who was in any way involved in 9/11 is partly responsible." [6]

Also after 9/11, CNN did not put an American flag up on their screen, unlike other major news outlets.[?]

Invasion of Iraq

Lead-up to war

Critics take particularly strong exception to the handling of the Bush administrations rhetoric leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. CNN’s own veteran reporter Christiane Amanpour characterized the behavior of the news media as "self-muzzling" and as "cheerleaders for the Bush war drive against Iraq". CNN coverage of the Iraq war has been criticized by international journalists for much the same reason. An editorial in the German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung compared CNN war coverage to "live coverage of the Super Bowl", and the Qatar based Al Jazeera has long criticized CNN for selectively portraying US soldiers as heroes. It should be noted that the bulk of the criticism is directed towards the version of CNN broadcasted within the United States; CNN International is considered more 'sober'. [7][8][9]

General war coverage

CNN's Iraq war coverage has been repeatedly criticized as pro-US, and several online news sources have been highly critical of an alleged pro-war slant.[10][11][12]

Emphasis on human interest over atrocities

CNN had also been criticized for excessively pushing 'human interest' stories and avoiding depictions of the violent images of events during the Iraq war; the result of all this being an alleged 'propagandistic' presentation of news. [13] Some critics have claimed that this constitutes a systematic bias in favour of the war.

Indians' petition on pro-Pakistani bias

On January 11, 2002, Rajiv Malhotra, announced a petition to CNN on Sulekha, a networking hub for Indians worldwide. Malhotra, an Indian entrepreneur and founder in 1994 of the Infinity Foundation, solicited signatures on petitiononline.com. He concluded, "Good reporting is not about deciding what is right or about taking sides, but about representing the major perspectives of a situation. I do not demand that CNN agree with India. But CNN must stop ignoring, subverting, and trivializing the positions taken by one-sixth of humanity." [14]

The site issued a press release on February 1, indicating that the petition had garnered over 55,000 signatures and that its initiators had met with CNN officials in Atlanta. The News India-Times reported on the January 30 meeting in its March 1 issue in the story "Concerns conveyed to CNN on coverage" by Prita Malhotra. [15]

Jon Stewart accuses Crossfire of "partisan hackery"

In October 2004, Comedy Central's The Daily Show host and comedian Jon Stewart created controversy when he berated hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala on CNN's political debate show Crossfire. He accused both commentators of 'partisan hackery' and claimed that their style of discourse had been 'hurting America'.

Jon Stewart made a number of points, major among these include the theater and absurdity of cable news, dishonest 'debate' where eloquence and persuasion are more important than finding the truth, and the use of the media as part of politicians' strategy.

In early 2005 CNN cancelled Crossfire; the legitimacy behind Jon Stewart's argument was cited by CNN president Jonathan Klein as one of the reasons behind the cancellation. [16][17]

Eason Jordan

Admits lobbying and minimizing atrocities

In April 2003, Eason Jordan wrote an article for the New York Times stating that he lobbied the Iraqi government for 12 years in order to maintain a CNN presence in Iraq. He also admitted to withholding what would be considered newsworthy information of the government's atrocities, citing fears that releasing news would potentially endanger the lives of Iraqis working for CNN in Baghdad, some of whom had already been subject to beatings and torture. [18]

Resignation after accusations by blogger

In February 2005, Eason Jordan resigned from CNN. The resignation came in response to controversy sparked after allegations arose on a blog that he had accused the U.S. Military of purposely killing journalists. While Jordan acknowledged his remarks were not sufficiently clear, he denies he ever meant to imply that the US government was intentionally targeting journalists. [19]

Large "X" over Cheney's face

On Monday November 21, 2005, CNN flashed a large "X" over Vice President, Dick Cheney's face during a speech that aired live on CNN. CNN later apologized and said the X appeared due to a technical glitch and no human error was involved. The network said the X was used by a computer to mark a space where one visual element is to segue into another, and is not supposed to be seen by the audience. Indeed, an internet blogger discovered that some text accompanied the "X" but was blocked out by CNN's regular on-screen text. The blogger soon deciphered the message "Transition begins after 5 frames of black," suggested CNN's explanation to be true.[20][21]

Temporary ban from Iran for mistranslation

In January 2006, CNN was banned in Iran as an expression of condemnation when CNN mistranslated a live broadcast of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. In the translation, CNN quoted Ahmedinejad as saying "the use of nuclear weapons is Iran's right." According to a release from the Iranian government, the president said "Iran has the right to nuclear energy." and went on to say "a nation that has civilization does not need nuclear weapons and our nation does not need them." The ban was lifted a day later after CNN issued an official apology for the mistranslation. [22]

Glenn Beck

In January 2006, Ken Jautz, president of CNN Headline News hired right-wing talk radio host Glenn Beck, giving him a primetime show which premiered May 8, 2006. Jautz stated that Beck was "cordial," and that his radio show was "conversational, not confrontational." [23] However, some left-leaning watchdogs like Media Matters for America and FAIR have claimed that Beck has a history of controversial statements made on his radio show [24][25][26][27][28].

Airs Bush rehearsal live during immigration speech

On May, 15, 2006, CNN aired a rehearsal of President George W. Bush's immigration reform speech live. "The president is rehearsing and the network pool inadvertently went to the president as he is rehearsing," anchor Wolf Blitzer said. Report of Event .

Hurricane Katrina comments

On the September 1, 2005 edition of The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer said the following about the numerous Hurricane Katrina victims, who were seen wading through the flooded streets of New Orleans: "... so many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor and they are so black ..." [29]

Microphone gaffe during Bush speech

On August 29, 2006, during a CNN broadcast of President George W. Bush's speech on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips' microphone was left on while she was in the bathroom. Portions of a personal conversation were broadcast live for over a minute and a half, during which Phillips offered advice on men, criticized her sister-in-law for being a "control freak," and praised her husband. The conversation audio was mixed with the President's audio feed and both were discernable. Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh criticized CNN for not cutting Phillips' microphone, and questioned whether or not technical personnel at CNN were aware of the incident [30]. CNN later apologized for the on-air gaffe.

CNN Anchor Curses and Walks off the Set

On August 4, 2005, CNN contributor Robert Novak walked off the set during a live broadcast of the CNN show Inside Politics, on which he appeared along with Democratic strategist and analyst James Carville and moderator Ed Henry.

During a discussion of Republican representative Katherine Harris's just-announced 2006 campaign for the U.S. Senate and her claim that newspapers tried to tarnish her image by manipulating photos of her, Novak claimed he had experienced the same thing leading to a skeptical response from Carville. Novak responded by saying "don't be too sure she's going to lose...all the establishment's against her and I've seen these Republican – anti-establishment candidates who do pretty well." Novak mentioned Ronald Reagan and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) before seeing Carville preparing to talk. Novak cut into his comments and said "Just let me finish what I'm going to say, James. Please, I know you hate to hear me, but you have..." Carville cut in and said that Novak has "got to show these right-wingers that he's got backbone, you know. It's why The Wall Street Journal editorial page is watching you. Show 'em you're tough."

Novak responded "Well, I think that's bullshit. And I hate that. Just let it go." Novak then removed his microphone and walked off the set.

After the segment ended, Henry apologized to viewers for Novak's leaving the set "a little early," adding: "I had told him in advance that we were going to ask him about the CIA leak case. He was not here for me to be able to ask him about that. Hopefully, we'll be able to ask him about that in the future."

They were never able to ask Novak about the CIA leak case. This was the last time he would be seen on CNN as he was suspended indefinitely after the incident. In a statement, CNN called the outburst "inexcusable and unacceptable," and apologized to its viewers. Novak was the last person to have appeared on the network since its debut weekend back in 1980.

On December 16, 2005, CNN's main competitor, Fox News Channel announced that Novak had signed a deal to do undisclosed work for the network. Novak stated that he would have left CNN even if his August incident didn't happen. He announced his retirement from CNN a week later saying his tenure at CNN lasted longer than most marriages. He now contributes to Fox News.

Alleged propaganda outlet for Insurgents

In October 2006, Press Secretary Tony Snow accused CNN of "propagandizing" the American public. Insurgents located in Iraq had filmed some of their attacks on American soldiers. CNN obtained the tapes from the insurgents and rebroadcast them in America weeks before national elections were to occur. Snow said during a press conference, "your network has shown pictures of snipers hitting Americans, which was used as a propaganda tool, so the fact is that -- it shows real sophistication on the part of these guys, because it creates the impression that Americans are sitting ducks, and that these guys are capable, when, in fact, while you have a capable enemy, they're dying in much greater numbers and suffering much greater damage." As a result of CNN's news reports, Representative Duncan Hunter asked The Pentagon to remove embedded CNN reporters, claiming that "C-N-N has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film featuring the killing of an American soldier."

Opinion Research Corporation

On January 12th, 2007, Opinion Research Corporation announced a "formal polling partnership" with CNN. Since ORC's parent company, InfoUSA, is controlled by Vinod Gupta, a noted donor to, fundraiser for, and supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton,[31] critics have questioned the reliability of CNN polls regarding Hillary Clinton's likely 2008 presidential run.

References

• Alternet
• CNN Exposed
• Media Matters
• CNN's Pakistan bias
• Sulekha Press Release on CNN 'pro-Pakistan bias'
• Jon Stewart on CNN on ifilm.com.