Three days later, like turkey buzzards settling on a corpse, the reporters came.
CNN's "spokeswoman for al-Qaeda" Christiane Amanpour Mouths-Off
by News Wire
(November 21, 2003)
[CapMag.com] The Guardian [September 16, 2003] has some interesting insight into CNN's Christiane Amanpour who has claimed that CNN,
...was "intimidated" by the Bush administration in its coverage of the war in Iraq. Amanpour said CNN was "muzzled" by a combination of the White House and the high-profile success of the controversial pro-war news network, Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News.
No Amanpour. A "muzzle" is what Saddam would do to those who spoke against him, i.e., cut their tongues off, have their daughters raped, etc.
Neither is "high-profile success" a muzzle--it is the result of viewers judging Fox News's war-coverage as being more objective.
"...certainly television - and perhaps to a certain extent my station - was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."
When asked by the interviewer if there had been a story that she had was "muzzled" from reporting on Amanpour said,
"It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone. It's a question of being rigorous. It's a question of really asking the questions."
Talk about evading the question. In other words: No there was no censorship.
Truth is there were stories that CNN did not report on. Not out of deference to George Bush and the American government, but out of deference to Saddam Hussein and his Tyranny in Iraq (See Saddam Hussein's Real Ministers of Disinformation Come Out of the Closet).
...Jim Walton, president of CNN Newsgroup, denied that the network had been subject to undue influence. He is reported to have had a "private conversation" with Amanpour following her comments...A Fox News spokeswoman said: "It's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."
Amanpour, who was embedded with the military during the Iraq conflict, was seen in a BBC documentary, Fighting the War, raging at British army chiefs because roving correspondents were getting better pictures than she was. "If you wish to go [with them] you can, but we won't re-embed you if you come back," she was told. Amanpour replied: "[That means] play by the rules or f??? off."
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