Wednesday, February 09, 2005
CNN's History of Hostility to the Military
Unfortunately, Eason Jordan's hostility to the military of Western democracies is nothing new.
Michelle Malkin writes the following in her Townhall.com column:
Some people say that Eason Jordan should be fired. But on the other hand, his likely successor and current chief lieutenant Chris Cramer, managing editor of CNN's International news division is no different. Cramer has made similar allegations to those of his boss.
Via the Frontpagemag.com blog, it turns out that Cramer, then a BBC reporter, and his partner soundman Sim Harris were taken hostage on April 11, 1980 when a group of Iranians opposed to the rule of Ayatollah Khomenei invaded the Iranian embassy of London.
Speaking before a group of media editors at the Crimes of War Project in 2002, Cramer told the audience how he escaped the embassy by faking a heart attack, and how in his view, the real terrorists were the British SAS commandos, who rescued the hostages and killed almost all of the *real* terrorists.
What is this love affair that CNN has going with the terrorists and rogue regimes of the world? The way these people snicker at civilized governments who respect the rule of law is amazing. What they conveniently ignore is that they would never have such freedoms in any of the rogue states they favor over Western democracies. So I hate to say it but even firing Cramer along with Jordan (which they richly deserve) would still not accomplish much. A good start would be these two men, their bosses, and the national and international news divisions. After that, CNN's advertisers need to be told that Americans will no longer buy their products if they advertise on a network that is so rabidly against Western interests.
Michelle Malkin writes the following in her Townhall.com column:
In the fall of 2002, he reportedly accused the Israeli military of deliberately targeting CNN personnel "on numerous occasions." He was in the middle of the infamous Tailwind scandal, in which CNN was forced to retract a Peter Arnett report that the American military used sarin gas against its own troops in Laos. And in 1999, Jordan declared: "We are a global network, and we take global interest[s] first, not U.S. interests first."
Some people say that Eason Jordan should be fired. But on the other hand, his likely successor and current chief lieutenant Chris Cramer, managing editor of CNN's International news division is no different. Cramer has made similar allegations to those of his boss.
Via the Frontpagemag.com blog, it turns out that Cramer, then a BBC reporter, and his partner soundman Sim Harris were taken hostage on April 11, 1980 when a group of Iranians opposed to the rule of Ayatollah Khomenei invaded the Iranian embassy of London.
Speaking before a group of media editors at the Crimes of War Project in 2002, Cramer told the audience how he escaped the embassy by faking a heart attack, and how in his view, the real terrorists were the British SAS commandos, who rescued the hostages and killed almost all of the *real* terrorists.
I won't roll out the victim syndrome for you at all -- well, maybe I will for two or three minutes. My own humbling experience was 20 years ago last week. Not, of course, as I remember it. It was actually last Wednesday at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Not, of course, that I remember it because it has no affect on me. Tomorrow I fly to London for a reunion, the first in 20 years. And I'll come back to you and let you know how that feels next year, if you like.
My experience was very brief. I was stupid enough to apply for a visa inside the Iranian Embassy in London in April 1980. I was stupid enough to be there when Iraqi terrorists stormed it. I was there for a very, very short time. I was there for precisely 28 hours. Not that I remember it, because I'm a member of your profession. We don't do PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder].
I was fortunate enough to have a slightly troubling stomach condition, having been in Zimbabwe, which manifested itself in a very short space of time. It's a most incredible heart attack. And I do fantastic heart attacks. I do great heart attacks. So convincing with my heart attack that the people there were embarrassed and threw me out.
And I was released after 27 hours into the hands of the Metropolitan Police in London and two days later into a dreadful bunch of terrorists called the SAS, who were probably worse than the terrorists inside the Iranian embassy.
And four and a half days later, Maggie Thatcher, in one of her rare moments of triumph, deployed the SAS in broad daylight to storm the embassy and they rescued all but maybe one or two of the hostages. Two were murdered. The SAS conveniently took out five members of the terrorist group and forgot to take out the sixth. So that was my brief, humbling experience.
What is this love affair that CNN has going with the terrorists and rogue regimes of the world? The way these people snicker at civilized governments who respect the rule of law is amazing. What they conveniently ignore is that they would never have such freedoms in any of the rogue states they favor over Western democracies. So I hate to say it but even firing Cramer along with Jordan (which they richly deserve) would still not accomplish much. A good start would be these two men, their bosses, and the national and international news divisions. After that, CNN's advertisers need to be told that Americans will no longer buy their products if they advertise on a network that is so rabidly against Western interests.
