Re: CNN responds to false footage charge

Note from Alan Spector:

I sent the following letter to Mr. Eason Jordan of CNN, who, according to
the posting by Louis Proyect, stated that the rumor about CNN faking the
Palestinian tapes was false. I decided to send a copy of it to others who
might have read Mr. Jordan's response.

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Dear Mr. Jordan:

I guess I believe you that CNN did not fake the tapes of Palestinians
celebrating.

Here is my theory as to why so many people were willing to believe it:

1) Because during the Gulf War, the American public was shown films provided
by the U.S. government supposedly showing accurate missile hits in Iraq. The
films later turned out to be ten years old. And filmed thousands of miles
away.

2) Because, from Panama to Grenada to Iran and Iraq and El Salvador and
Indonesia and Guatemala and Chile and a hundred other places, the U.S.
government has repeatedly lied to the U.S. public. And more often than not,
many news media outlets spread those lies to hundreds of millions of people.

3) Because there also were many Palestinians who were not celebrating. True,
the media did verbally report that the Palestinian leadership was opposed to
the September 11 bombing, but the picture of several thousand Palestinians
celebrating was much more powerful than any verbal disclaimer. There were no
pictures of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were not
celebrating (perhaps because it was not dramatic). But people have a right
to be skeptical when the news they get has been biased.

4) Because those of us who travel to other countries are quite surprised at
how CNN in other countries often reports much more than CNN in the U.S.
does, leading to the conclusion that there might be serious censorship in
the U.S.

So Mr. Jordan, I do not mean to question your personal integrity. Only to
explain to you why such a false rumor could be so easily believed by so many
people.

Sincerely,

Alan Spector
----- Original Message -----
From: "Louis Proyect" <lnp3@panix.com>
To: "sr" <socialist-register@yorku.ca>; "wsn" <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 8:18 PM
Subject: CNN responds to false footage charge


> Posted to Marxmail by Jose Perez:
>
> [Following the recent spate or repostings of the charge that CNN
> played decade old video claiming it was Palestinians celebrating the
> Sep. 11 attacks, a person named Craig Gingold did the logical thing,
> and wrote CNN. He was immediately answered by the person in charge of
> newsgathering for CNN, Eason Jordan. Gingold asks that his email and
> Jordan's response be circulated to all lists where the charge against
> CNN was aired]
>
> [I do not know Craig Gingold, or if I do I don't recall who he is.
> But I have known Eason Jordan, the executive who answered his email,
> for more than a decade, at least casually, as well as observed his
> work, or the results of it, at fairly close range.
>
> [I'm sure if we sat down to have a philosophical or political
> discussion Jordan and I might disagree on countless topics. But on
> the level of the formal, ethical norms and standards of mainstream
> journalism, nothing I've ever seen him do or say nor anything I have
> ever heard about him would raise the slightest question in my mind
> about taking his probity for granted on an issue like this.
>
> [Jordan is a Georgia native who rose through the CNN. He came into
> CNN in his early 20s and was for five or six years the overnight
> person on CNN's international desk. At the end of the 1980's, as CNN
> grew and its international reporting expanded, he was put in charge
> of the growing international desk, and is especially associated with
> initiatives like making sure CNN kept a reporting presence in Iraq
> throughout the Gulf War and resisting significant pressure from the
> U.S. and its allies in that war to stop reporting Iraq's side of that
> story.
>
> [There would be, undoubtedly, countless things one might criticize
> from a left-wing point of view about this reporting, but even so, it
> must be admitted that CNN covered Iraq's side in that war to an
> extent that was unprecedented in the history of mainstream American
> journalism. Similarly, he was closely associated with things like
> CNN's establishing a bureau in Havana, and was the first journalist
> from a major "Western" news organization to report on North Korea,
> using a small DV cam to record pictures and reporting about the
> famine that country was facing 3 or 4 years back. He has stanchly
> defended CNN's hiring of Palestinian journalists and the airing of
> their work against a barrage of criticism from the Israeli press and
> government. Under Jordan, CNN's international desk became much more
> of a truly international desk, with staff members from all over the
> world, including many from the third world. A number of people that
> came in essentially as person-on-the-lowest-rung on the international
> desk (most famously Christian Amanpour but not just her) have gone on
> to do some of the better on-screen CNN international reporting of
> recent years, despite "funny accents," "bad delivery" and "faces made
> for radio."
>
> [Unfortunately, U.S. viewers get very little exposure to this
> reporting, as the CNN domestic network (the one everyone thinks of as
> "the" CNN although the truth is CNN International has many, many more
> subscribers) no longer carries much of this material, unlike several
> years ago, before Time-Warner acquired Turner broadcasting.
>
> [An interesting question for CNN to ponder might be why what is
> presented as an unsubstantiated rumor was given such credence. I say
> unsubstantiated rumor because the person who made the charge didn't
> even CLAIM to have the proof, and there was a strong suggestion in
> how he wrote about it that he'd never even seen the alleged proof.
> The person who was said to have the proof was an anonymous teacher.
> And on the *substance* of the events, there is no dispute that there
> were initially some expressions of celebration among Palestinians
> when the first reports on the attacks came through.
>
> [I do not believe such a claim would have been as easily accepted
> say, eight or ten years ago.]
>
> [José]
>
> *  *  *
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Craig Gingold" <gingold@sierratel.com>
> To: <change-links@yahoogroups.com>;
> <bay_area_activist@yahoogroups.com> Cc:
> <WILPF-news-us@igc.topica.com>; <hopedance@omnipost.com>
> Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2001 8:00 PM
> Subject: !b_a_Act: CNN Exec Replies to Phony Video Accusation
>
> Over the last several days an extremely alarming email has been
> circulating on virtually every email list in existence, judging by
> the number of copies that I have received. The basic charge is that
> CNN perpetrated a knowing deception of its viewers by airing a
> 10-year-old videotape of Palestinians celebrating during the Gulf
> War, but misrepresenting it as showing celebrations of the terror
> attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. I hardly need explain
> why this is an extremely serious accusation. The implications -- if
> true -- are so disturbing that I felt compelled to make an effort to
> ascertain the veracity of the claim. (The relevant parts of that
> email are at the very end of this posting.)
>
> Given the incredibly wide circulation of the email, and the fact that
> it is based entirely on the unverified assertions of one individual,
> I think it is essential to make a serious effort to determine what
> the basic facts are. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the
> 10-year-old tapes cited by the man making the accusation. That would,
> of course, be the most straightforward way to either prove or
> disprove his charges.
>
> The next -- and most obvious -- step to take was to ask for a
> response to this allegation from CNN. Friday afternoon I wrote a
> short letter that I sent by email to CNN, which I made a point of
> CC'ing to the man in charge of news operations, Eason Jordan.
> Somewhat to my surprise, I received a reply from Mr. Jordan before an
> hour had passed -- clearly they are rather concerned to be accused of
> such a blatant deception. His reply is below, followed by my letter
> of inquiry. (I had intended to send this out immediately, but was
> prevented from doing so due to computer problems.)
>
> Unless somebody comes forward with clear and convincing proof that
> CNN really used 10-year-old videotapes, I see no particular reason to
> doubt Mr. Jordan's outline of the facts. In any event, I must confess
> I don't know why it should have been considered utterly unbelievable
> that there would have been *some* Palestinians who did, in fact,
> celebrate the attacks on the United States. Not surprising at all,
> IMO. And hardly surprising that this would be considered newsworthy.
> The real questions are, how widespread were such celebrations, and
> how representative -- or NOT -- were they of overall Palestinian
> reaction to the attacks? And, of course -- did the news reports (on
> CNN and elsewhere) make any real effort to make such assessments?
>
> I know we can never rule out with *100% certainty* the *possibility*
> of such blatant electronic fabrications, but I think we should try to
> avoid the kind of credulous acceptance of unsubstantiated allegations
> that I've observed in this case. Certainly, we need to be vigilant
> against all forms of manipulation. But the real problems we face with
> the mass media are *much* more in the area of framing and context,
> and the suppression of strongly dissenting points of view.
>
> Craig Gingold Midpines CA
>
> **  Please forward this post to any other list where this issue has
> been discussed. **
>
> ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
> From:               "Jordan, Eason" <Eason.Jordan@turner.com>
> To:                 "'gingold@sierratel.com'" <gingold@sierratel.com>
> Subject:            RE: VERY URGENT: CNN Accused of LYING to viewers
> Date sent:          Fri, 14 Sep 2001 17:00:44 -0400
>
> [Message] From EASON JORDAN, Chief News Executive, CNN:
>
> The suggestion that CNN used 10-year-old images to illustrate
> Palestinians celebrating the terrorist strikes in the U.S. is
> baseless and ridiculous. The videotape was, in fact, shot Tuesday in
> East Jerusalem by a Reuters TV crew and included comments from a
> Palestinian praising Osama Bin Laden, who was not a Gulf War player.
> The more interesting story -- it has the added value of being true --
> is that Palestinian officials have threatened journalists for taking
> pictures of these Palestinian celebrations.
> ____________________________
>
> [Reply to a followup question:]
>
> The videotape was shot on Tuesday, not Wednesday, during daylight
> hours (late in the day but before nightfall). CNN is a responsible
> news organization committed to accuracy and fairness. The sad
> reality, which is indisputable, is some Palestinians celebrated when
> they heard about this horrific tragedy.
>
> @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Craig Gingold [mailto:gingold@sierratel.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 4:49 PM
> To: cnn.feedback@cnn.com; Jordan, Eason
> Subject: VERY URGENT: CNN Accused of LYING to viewers
>
> To: Responsible individuals at CNN:
>
> In case you have not yet seen this, I am forwarding for your
> *immediate* attention an email post which is being very widely
> circulated on a large number of email listserves. (This was
> originally posted on the Indymedia website at the URL shown below.)
> The accusation of deliberate and knowing deception on the part of CNN
> is extremely grave. Judging by the positive responses that have been
> posted, and the alacrity with which this post is being forwarded to
> yet other email lists, it is clear that the vast majority of readers
> are giving these allegations uncritical acceptance -- undoubtedly
> because it confirms widespread perceptions of bias and manipulation
> on the part of the mass media.
>
> I urge you to take this matter very seriously, and I hope you will
> undertake an *immediate* investigation of the specific allegation
> that has been made. Most importantly, CNN needs to issue a detailed
> factual response to this accusation AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. A failure to
> to so will only lend more credibility to the allegation.
>
> I hope to hear from someone at CNN some time later today - Friday -
> to confirm that you are in fact undertaking to investigate this
> matter.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Craig Gingold Midpines CA (209) 742-6802
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> To: Recipient list suppressed <Recipient list suppressed Date:
> Thursday, September 13, 2001 7:35 AM Subject: "CNN USING 1991 FOOTAGE
> of celebrating Palistinians"?
>
> At work on Wednesday we were discussing this. They were showing
> images of the West Bank, of people celebrating in bright sunshine
> when it should have been evening there, if it in fact were live.
>
> ================================
> http://indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=63288&group=webcast
>
> CNN USING 1991 FOOTAGE of celebrating Palistinians to manipulate you
>
> (english) by Marcio 10:32pm Wed Sep 12 '01 . I'd like to add some
> ideas from here, down south. There's an important point in the power
> of press, specifically the power of CNN. All around the world we are
> subjected to 3 or 4 huge news distributors, and one of them - as you
> well know - is CNN. Very well, I guess all of you have been seeing
> (just as I've been) images from this company. In particular, one set
> of images called my attencion: the Palestinians celebrating the
> bombing, out on the streets, eating some cake and making funny faces
> for the camera.
>
> Well, THOSE IMAGES WERE SHOT BACK IN 1991!!! Those are images of
> Palestinians celebrating the invasion of Kuwait! It's simply
> unacceptable that a super-power of cumminications as CNN uses images
> which do not correspond to the reality in talking about so serious an
> issue.
>
> A teacher of mine, here in Brazil, has videotapes recorded in 1991,
> with the very same images; he's been sending emails to CNN, Globo
> (the major TV network in Brazil) and newspapers, denouncing what I
> myself classify as a crime against the public opinion. If anyone of
> you has access to this kind of files, serch for it. In the meanwhile,
> I'll try to 'put my hands' on a copy of this tape.
>
> But now, think for a moment about the impact of such images. Your
> people is hurt, emotionally fragile, and this kind broadcast have
> very high possibility of causing waves of anger and rage against
> Palestinians. It's simply irresponsible to show images such as those.
>
> <snip non-germane material>
>
> Márcio A. V. Carvalho State University of Campinas - Brazil
>
> --
> Louis Proyect, lnp3@panix.com on 09/16/2001
>
> Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org
>
>