The Society of Professional Journalists has a Code of Ethics which, among other things:
*Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others;
*Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting;
*Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
So what are to make when a “journalist” posts this to their Twitter account?
The above is from Octavia Nasr of CNN. According to the CNN website:
Octavia Nasr is CNN’s senior editor of Middle East affairs and a 25-year-veteran of the news business. A leader in integrating social media with newsgathering and reporting, Nasr’s latest reporting on the elections in Iran and their fallout served as a backdrop to showcase her expertise in both traditional as well as social-media-driven content.
Nasr serves as an on-air and off-air analyst across all platforms of CNN Worldwide. She covers Middle East politics and current affairs, global terrorism and militant Islam. Her weekly Mideast Voices segment and her blogs offer a glimpse into the region rarely discussed on U.S. television.
Since she joined CNN, Nasr covered every major Middle East story. During the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, she traveled to the region and contributed to CNN’s award-winning coverage of the conflict. In 2005 she reported from Lebanon and Syria on The Cedar revolution and its regional repercussions. In 2003 she managed the 15-member Arab desk which coordinated coverage of the Iraq war, and provided CNN domestic and international audiences an inside look into Arab media and culture and how they viewed the conflict.
Nasr’s experience and deep knowledge of the Middle East put her in the spotlight during CNN’s coverage of September 11th and its aftermath. Shortly after the attacks, she spent months traveling in the Middle East region coordinating on-air appearances and forging exclusive newsgathering deals with media partners.
So why does her “tweet” bother me? She says that Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah is one of the Hezbollah’s “giants” that she “respect[s] a lot.”
So who is Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah?
According to the Weekly Standard:
How did CNN senior editor of Middle East affairs Octavia Nasr celebrate July 4? By mourning the passing of Hezbollah’s Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. Here’s what the CNN editor posted on her Twitter account:
Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot..#Lebanon
Fadlallah “famously justified suicide bombings,” as the New York Times recalls in its obituary for him:
In a 2002 interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph, he was quoted as saying of the Palestinians: “They have had their land stolen, their families killed, their homes destroyed, and the Israelis are using weapons, such as the F16 aircraft, which are meant only for major wars. There is no other way for the Palestinians to push back those mountains, apart from martyrdom operations.”
The Times also reports in its obit that Fadlallah is believed to be responsible for the killing of 241 U.S. Marines during the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings:
Western intelligence services, however, held the ayatollah responsible for attacks against Western targets, including the 1983 bombings of two barracks in Beirut in which 241 United States Marines and 58 French paratroopers were killed….The administration of President Bill Clinton froze the ayatollah’s assets in 1995 because of his suspected involvement with terrorists. And in 2006, Israel bombed his house in south Beirut, but he was not there at the time.
In 2008, Fadlallah said on Palestinian TV that “Zionism has inflated the number of victims in this Holocaust beyond imagination.”
Is there a chance Nasr is simply ignorant of the evils of Fadlallah? It seems very unlikely considering her biography on CNN’s website:
Nasr serves as an on-air and off-air analyst across all platforms of CNN Worldwide. She covers Middle East politics and current affairs, global terrorism and militant Islam…Nasr’s experience and deep knowledge of the Middle East put her in the spotlight during CNN’s coverage of September 11th and its aftermath. Shortly after the attacks, she spent months traveling in the Middle East region coordinating on-air appearances and forging exclusive newsgathering deals with media partners.
Talk about getting too close to one’s subject.
The enemy seems to have moved from the gate to inside the fort, in this case, CNN seems to be the enemy and is clearly inside the gate. Sometimes I feel we are such fools.
