-Caveat Lector-
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 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED];
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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
