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CNN admits Hezbollah controlled story

Ogami

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2006-07-23-CNNRobertson.jpg


CNN's Robertson Now Admits: Hezbollah 'Had Control' of His Anti-Israel Piece
Posted by Rich Noyes on July 24, 2006 - 15:32.

Better late than never? On CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday, CNN’s senior international correspondent Nic Robertson added all of the caveats and disclaimers that he should have included in his story last week that amounted to his giving an uncritical forum for the terrorist group Hezbollah to spout unverifiable anti-Israeli propaganda.

Back on July 18, Hezbollah took Robertson and his crew on a tour of a heavily damaged south Beirut neighborhood. The Hezbollah “press officer†even instructed the CNN camera: “Just look. Shoot. Look at this building. Is it a military base? Is it a military base, or just civilians living in this building?â€

In his original story, Robertson had no complaints about the journalistic limitations of a story put together under such tight controls, and Robertson himself at one point seemed to agree with the Hezbollah propaganda claim that Israeli jets had targeted a civilian area: “As we run past the rubble, we see much that points to civilian life, no evidence apparent of military equipment.â€

Challenged by Reliable Sources host (and Washington Post media writer) Howard Kurtz on Sunday, Robertson suggested Hezbollah has “very, very sophisticated and slick media operations,†that the terrorist group “had control of the situation. They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath,†and he even contradicted Hezbollah’s self-serving spin: “There's no doubt that the [Israeli] bombs there are hitting Hezbollah facilities.â€

But the closest Robertson came to making any of these points in the taped package that aired last week was admitting that “we [he and his CNN crew] didn’t go burrowing into all the houses,†after pointing out (for the second time) that “we didn’t see any military type of equipment†in the area Hezbollah chose to let them tour.

Five days later, Robertson argued that “journalistic integrity†required skepticism: “When you hear their [Hezbollah’s] claims, they have to come with more than a grain of salt, that you have to put in some journalistic integrity. That you have to point out to the audience and let them know that this was a guided tour by Hezbollah press officials along with their security, that it was a very rushed affair.â€

While some viewers undoubtedly deduced out that it was “a guided tour†from the numerous sound bites from the Hezbollah press officer, it’s not as if Robertson ever complained about his limitations or explicitly warned viewers that there was no way he could confirm any of the claims.

Nic Robertson, of course, isn’t the only correspondent going on these Hezbollah-arranged tours, as CNN’s Reliable Sources noted yesterday. In a set-up to his interview with Robertson, Kurtz played clips of NBC’s Richard Engel and CBS’s Elizabeth Palmer relating their trips into the damaged areas, with Palmer providing the sort of disclaimer that Robertson failed to include last week: “This morning, Hezbollah showed journalists around the ruins of its former stronghold, but Hezbollah is also determined that outsiders wil only see what it wants them to see.â€
http://newsbusters.org/node/6552
 
This is from a blog. Why should we believe a story written by a blogger with an agenda. Maybe if you had used a reliable source like the Wall Street Journal or the National Review, I would believe it. But not blogs. Anyone can put up a blog and say anything without any check and balance.
 
This is from CNN's Reliable Sources hosted by Howard Kurtz.

If you volunteer to watch all these crappy news shows and transcribe for us, Glammour Boy, then by all means do a better job.

Anyone can put up a blog and say anything without any check and balance.

If you'd bother to click on the link (hello?), there is a link to CNN's transcripts where you can read the longer version.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0607/23/rs.01.html

Happy?

-Ogami
 
Hezbollah confesses:

"The truth is _ let me say this clearly _ we didn't even expect (this) response ... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," said Komati.

He said Hezbollah had expected "the usual, limited response" from Israel.

No, you didn't expect this, did you? Israel has sent the precise message that I thought they were sending: Even one of our soldiers is more precious to us than all of your towns put together.

Komati said Hezbollah demanded an immediate end to Israeli attacks before agreeing to negotiate and rejected a plan proposed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to Beirut.

All the more reason to press on. Continue the attacks until Hezbollah's attitude changes. (Not that I expect the terrorists to.)

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/25/D8J39P502.html

-Ogami
 
Well time to give credit to CNN, they are apparently really incensed over Hezbollah's phony news stories. Now even CNN's Anderson Cooper is taking on their spin machine. I could not be more shocked:

CNN's Anderson Cooper Exposes Hezbollah's Media Manipulations
Posted by Rich Noyes on July 25, 2006 - 17:54.

On Monday’s "Anderson Cooper 360," CNN’s Anderson Cooper related his visit to a Hezbollah-controlled section of Beirut where he was supposed to photograph certain damaged buildings, part of the terrorist group’s strategy of generating news stories about Lebanese civilian casualities caused by Israeli bombs.

But instead of merely transmitting Hezbollah’s unverified and unverifiable claims to the outside world, Cooper — to his credit — exposed the efforts by Hezbollah to manipulate CNN and other Western reporters. It’s quite a contrast from the much more accommodating approach taken by his colleague, Nic Robertson, in a report that aired on a variety of CNN programs (including AC360) back on July 18, a report that Robertson himself has now conceded was put together under Hezbollah's control.

Unlike Robertson, Cooper was explicit about how Hezbollah’s operatives had set all of the rules: “Young men on motor scooters followed our every movement. They only allowed us to videotape certain streets, certain buildings,” he explained. He countered Hezbollah claims that Israel targets civilians by pointing out that the group based itself in civilian areas and that Israel's air force drops leaflets warning of attacks.

Cooper exposed for CNN viewers that the sight of speeding ambulances, sirens blaring, was just a phony play staged by Hezbollah: “One by one, they’ve been told to turn on their sirens and zoom off so that all the photographers here can get shots of ambulances rushing off to treat civilians....These ambulances aren’t responding to any new bombings. The sirens are strictly for effect.”

CNN showed cameramen from other news organizations dutifully photographing the ambulances as they went by.
http://newsbusters.org/node/6574
 
This is similar to the ways in which the U.S. Defense Department restricted what embedded journalists could photograph and report on. Very interesting.
 
What's similar about staging phony ambulances to embedded reporters reporting on precisely what they saw the troops doing during the Iraqi invasion? There's no similarity at all!
 
Ogami said:
The Third Reich has sent the precise message that I thought they were sending: Even one of our Aryan soldiers is more precious to us than all of your Jewish towns put together.

OMFG SHAWK AND DIZMAY!
 
Deserves a bump just for that staged photo that Headvoid found of a "direct hit" on an ambulance's Red Cross logo. Come on! LOL
 
Glad you liked it, I watched it all the way through.

So we learned those ambulances have a red disc attached to the roof at that point shown in the picture, and it was torn free from whatever reason and we were told it was a missile attack. By the alive driver, who appeared to have not a scratch!

I guess the facts never mattered. The only goal was "hate the Jews", and that goal was accomplished worldwide. Something to remember in our own war on terror, every time American soldiers are accused of atrocities.

-Ogami
 
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