CNN and ISRAEL:
How A Respected News Network Became a Palestinian Propaganda Tool
By Naomi Ragen
May 4, 2001

    ... In the time allotted me, I'd like to discuss briefly CNN's systematic distortion of the truth of Middle East events since September of 2000, some of the reasons for it, and what we can do to challenge and correct the incalculable harm it is doing not only to Israel and the Jewish people, but to truth and morality all over the world.

    On February 11, 2001, a truck carrying Israeli soldiers narrowly missed being blown to bits by a bomb detonated on the side of the road near the Jewish townships of Gush Katif and Kfar Darom outside the Gaza Strip. Two days before, on Friday night, the eve of the Jewish Sabbath, Palestinian artillery shells fell on the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, near the Gaza Strip, forcing families to spend the Sabbath in bomb shelters.

    Palestinians also opened fire on military roadblocks near Gush Katif. All in all, there were twenty incidents of Palestinian gunfire and three grenade attacks in the Gaza strip on the weekend of February 9-11.

    Those watching CNN did not hear of any of these things. Instead, what CNN chose to show us on Sunday, February 11, was the Abdin family of Gaza in their tent, tearfully cursing out Israeli soldiers for leveling their house and land. No, Mrs. Abdin said predictably, our house and land were not used as shelter for gunmen shooting at Israeli cars on the road to Gush Katif. Inexplicably, CNN then cut to a nearby elaborate villa in the building stages , which was untouched, and its owner, an elderly Mrs. Halima, whose shouts in Arabic were dutifully translated by the CNN reporter: " G-d damn the Jews and the Americans. G-d take revenge on them. My son and six or seven others will strap explosives to themselves and blow themselves up in Israel."

    In my Jerusalem Post column of November 11 I spoke about a similar one-sided CNN report. In it, CNN's Palestinian reporter Rula Amin showed the hardships of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli forces closing the road they use to visit relatives and transport produce.

    That road, too, had been used by Palestinians to attack Israelis. In my column, I suggested, reasonably I think, that if CNN were going to show hardships, why not be even handed and show hardships on both sides? I pointed out that Jews living in Alon Shvut, only 23 kilometers from Jerusalem, in a settlement that dates back before 1948, were also suffering from a road closure. By opening fire on cars using the bypass tunnel-built at great expense to circumvent Arab villages, PLO gunmen had forced Jewish residents to take huge detours, quadrupling their traveling time. As a result, they were forced to leave work earlier, close businesses earlier to avoid travelling home in the dark. An increasing number of their children are in need of psychological help in dealing with fears their parents may not make it home , or that they themselves may be shot enroute to school or ballet class. It is common knowledge that school children in these areas now keep their feet up as they ride schoolbuses fearful they might be blown off. Alon Shvut has taxed local residents to purchase medical equipment in case road closures prevent them from reaching hospitals during emergencies.

    Residents are unable to plan outings, or invite children and grandchildren to come for the weekend. Even going to Jerusalem for a movie, a trip that takes 15 minutes using the bypass tunnel, can take hours when the tunnel is closed. Just last week, a young father was shot in the head and killed on that road.

    There was, in short, certainly enough material for an interesting, even-handed report to balance that of Palestinian hardships in Gaza. I suggested to CNN that they find a reporter as sympathetic to Israelis as Rula Amin is to her fellow Palestinians to give some balance and objectivity to their news reports. In response, CNN's new Jerusalem bureau chief, Mike Hanna, called me a racist... Mr. Hanna's one-sided reports...are certainly bad journalism. Worse, their one-sidedness makes them boring. So if CNN's ratings are plummeting worldwide, I'd ask myself if the sameness of their reports aren't just wearying their viewers, even those who don't mind that CNN's Jerusalem bureau has become a pro-Palestinian propaganda machine under Mr. Hanna. After all, wouldn't it have been more interesting to have a report on the heartbroken Arab cancer patients whose Jewish oncologist, Dr. Gillis, was murdered by Arab terrorists on his way home from Hadassah Hospital? After all, would viewers not be interested in seeing the rehabilitation of the three Israeli schoolchildren whose legs were blown off by a terrorist bomb? After all, would viewers not be interested in knowing that since the intifada began, 100 Israeli children have been orphaned by terrorists as their young parents were wantonly killed? Would they not be interested in hearing interviews with the schoolchildren who lost their teacher, Mrs. Leisha? After all, isn't that what good journalism is all about? Balance? After all, Palestinians do not have an monopoly on suffering in this area.

    One wonders too, what has happened to journalistic guidelines and procedures? In that same November 7 report, CNN said: 275 Palestinians have been killed so far." No mention at all of Israeli casualties. Perhaps as a result of public protests, CNN now says, as it did on February 11 report, that "375 people have been killed since the Intifada began, 75% of them Palestinians."

    What's wrong with that, you might ask? Well, it equates the death of the one who planted the bomb with the one that died in the bomb blast. The one who is apprehended and shot by policemen for shooting a woman in her car, with the woman in the car. And how do they count Arabs blown up by fellow Arabs, as in the Hadera bus attack? It is a basically immoral and ---more importantly for a news organization --- misleading to give those kind of statistics.

    A survey done a short while ago, when Israeli casualties numbered only 43 instead 55, as they do now, showed that 72% of Israelis killed were noncombatants. Twenty-two out of forty-three were civilians. Nine were soldiers involved in non-combat activity, and 12 were soldiers involved in active defensive measures against combatants. In contrast, the overwhelming number of Palestinian casualties were active combatants, involved in planting bombs, shooting, or rock-throwing that endangered lives.

    How else does CNN distort the news reaching the world about the Middle East? A quick look at the CNN website reveals the following headlines: "Violence Flares as Israel Withdraws Peace Plan," says one, falsifying the fact that the violence has been "flaring" since September even when Israel was at its most forthcoming in concessions. Opening up even a mild sounding "Mubarak, Arafat to meet in Cairo," we are told that "hardliner" Arik Sharon has been elected as Israeli prime Minister.

    This nudging of public opinion with adjectives goes all the way through CNN reporting. While Arik Sharon is called a "hard-liner," Sheik Yassin, who heads the Hamas terrorist organization which claimed responsibility for blowing up the red and white Israeli school bus carrying elementary school children, is called by CNN a "spiritual leader of an Islamic Fundamentalist organization." In a Dec. 14 report, CNN called a man who pulled a gun on Israeli soldiers and was involved in a bloody nine- hour gun battle an "activist." Palestinian riots are dubbed "demonstrations." In reporting on the car bomb in Jerusalem's Orthodox neighborhood that sent debris flying 150 meters, CNN's lead is: "Two people were injured, neither seriously. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Israelis were quick to blame Palestinians."

    Is it just me, or does that sound pejorative, as if the Israelis should be less judgmental, and consider blaming, let's say, the Irish? Later, in the same article the head of the terrorist Hamas organization, again given ample room to air his enlightening views, happily justified the attack.

    If I had two hours, I could easily give you two hours worth of this kind of blatant propagandizing in which extremist Moslem leaders are allowed to speak without editorial direction or comment, while readers are nudged by CNN with adjectives to come to the correct conclusion concerning Israeli guilt...

    What are CNN's motives? What are some of the reasons the media giant has turned to such a disastrous policy? And what can ordinary, concerned citizens do about a media giant bent on distorting the news to sell a version of events world-wide that will hide the true facts of the Arab-Israeli conflict?

    First, why? Some of the answer is general. It's a problem CNN shares with all news media attempting to cover the Middle East conflict. In an article called "Lights, Camera, Intifada," written by Stephanie Guttman for the Weekly Standard, Ms. Guttman discusses the intimidation of the media by the Palestinian Authority; the lack of Hebrew language skills, laziness and fear of reporters preventing them from giving the recent violence true, unbiased journalistic coverage.

    According to Ms. Guttman, Israel is fighting a war on two fronts: the actual shooting, and the war of images provided to hungry world-wide news agencies with the highest bid. Reporting in a war zone is always dangerous, but there is additional danger to journalists, or agencies, that get identified with war stories "the terrorists groups who control these areas don't like. Take the photos the militiamen like, and you are fine; they'll even helpfully usher you around. Take pictures that show Palestinians in roles other than victims, and things can get nasty quite fast."

    She reports the following: " Jean Pierre Martin, a TV producer for Radio TV Luxembourg was on his way with his crew to Palestinian- controlled Ramallah when four young men pulled up in a blue Chrysler van and began to give orders to stone- throwing children. The men produced Molotov cocktails from their car and began handing them out (the kids later told Martin the men were from El Fatah, Arafat's organization). Martin was the only one who filmed the event. After a few seconds, the young men noticed his filming. They, and the stone-throwers, surrounded the crew. The men took the camera from the hands of the cameramen and disappeared with it.

    The crowd began hitting them. One youth got his hands around Martin's neck and began choking him. A Palestinian cameraman working for an America company rescued them, and brought them to the Palestinian police. Only after assuring police that the "cocktail" incident had been erased, did police agree to return the camera and let them go..." Ms. Guttman concluded that: "Rather than jeopardize their already tenuous access to Palestinian territories, or endanger their employees, many of the media are simply ' not seeing' things or finding elaborate justifications for ignoring stories that would displease their hosts in the territories."

    [For the second half of the article, please go to Naomi Ragen's website]

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