Ask yourself, what do you consider to be newsworthy?
What if I told you one week after Hurricane Katrina ravaged parts of the United States that the strippers had returned to New Orleans? Is this newsworthy?
Or what if you were worrying about a possible avian flu outbreak in Canada, and I told you that the killer bird flu was just one breath away?
Would you still trust me to give you the news? Would you listen to me?
You see, it was CNN that told me the strippers had returned to New Orleans while the world was still stunned by the devastation. And it was CNN that told me this killer bird flu was one breath away just as I was taking my next breath.
CNN prides itself on being the most trustworthy name in news. We can all recognize James Earl Jones’ distinctive voice saying “This is CNN.” CNN cannot be trusted to give you fair and balanced news. I am not here to dissuade you from watching CNN. I want to persuade you that CNN cannot be the be all and end all of news.
The role of the media is to inform and illuminate in the public interest, to provide the public with an informed basis upon which they can exercise their democratic rights.
We live in a world of 24 hours news. It’s only one click away. How long does an average news story last? One, maybe two minutes at the most? In a 24 hour span that means we would hear 720 different news stories. Somewhere in there news stations are bound to repeat stories, modify stories, maybe even create stories?
In 1999 CNN ran a story that the United States military had used nerve gas in a mission to kill American defectors in Laos during the Vietnam War. It turns out that this story was unprovable. CNN issues a 54 page retraction after an independent investigation showed that virtually nothing in CNN’s report could be supported.
A recent program on CNN titled “Undercover in the Secret State” depicted a public execution in North Korea. CNN claimed the man was accused of helping a refugee cross into neighboring China. Their images had been captured from a distance and included no first person accounts of what was taking place, making it difficult to discern the circumstances or the location of the actions. North Korea is calling it a sheer fabrication.
During a Rock the Vote debate with Democratic Presidential hopefuls, a Brown University student stood up and asked the question “PC’s or Macs?” It turns out she had intended to ask a more complicated question on technology but a producer had modified it because “it wasn’t lighthearted enough.” Right before she went up to the microphone the producer handed her a note card with her “new” question on it. CNN admitted to this. They stated “In an attempt to encourage a lighthearted moment a producer working with Ms. Trustman (the student) clearly went too far. CNN regrets the producers actions.”
Christianne Amanpour is a reporter for CNN who gained worldwide fame for her impressive coverage of the Gulf War in the 1990’s. She is often seen as one of the most respected journalists in the media today, by colleagues and by viewers. She has recently admitted that CNN may not be completely fair and balanced with its reportings.
Amanpour says that CNN was intimidated by the Bush Administration as well as Fox News during the war in Iraq which resulted in what she calls “a climate of fear and self-censorship.” She also says that the media largely “toed the Bush administration line” in covering the war and by doing so failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion in Iraq. She calls it “disinformation at the highest levels.”
Bias. The Oxford dictionary defines bias as an inclination or prejudice in favor of a particular person, thing, or viewpoint. There have been many accusations of bias against CNN.
While CNN is corporate owned and controlled and their have been many claims in the past there is not bias at CNN, one has to watch CNN for just a short time before they start to notice bias.
Just last week a 30 second television spot by independentcourt.org was aired on CNN. The spot is blatantly against George Bush’s new pick for the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito. After making such claims against Alito as he allowed the strip search of a ten year old girl, the spot ends with “The right wing has already taken over the west wing….don’t let them take over your Supreme Court.
That isn’t the only instance of bias against him. Morning show host Soledad O’Brien was doing a news story on Alito when she stated that “he ruled a Pennsylvania law, saying that a woman needs to seek her husbands permission before has an abortion, is constitutional.” In actuality the law he ruled as constitutional says the woman has to sign a statement saying she had notified him that she was getting an abortion in addition to four instances where the woman has to sign the statement. It may be just a case of bad fact-checking but the most trustworthy name in news should be able to at least do that.
And speaking of fact-checking, afternoon show host Carol Lin, in reporting on the recent riots in Paris referred to the two black French teenagers who were electrocuted as “African-Americans.”
There are many more examples of bias, story fabrication and censorship that I could go into about CNN. Did you know that there is a term called “CNNing.” It refers to how television news has become “news entertainment” by focusing on celebrity, ratings, story lines and spectacle as well as on its own authority and corporate-related products and features.
There are many flaws within the reporting system at CNN. CNN can not be trusted to bring you the most important news. If you do watch the channel you must take it all with a grain of salt, watch out for bias and do some back up research before you can take it as the truth.
I leave you with a quote from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer – “ If you present both sides, you’re going to get slammed for presenting both sides.”
| 
