Posted on 08/08/2006 1:46:18 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
It’s not every day that commentators like me get hate mail. Well, actually it is every day – but not from CNN!
You mean, they can dish it out, but can’t take it? Apparently, someone at CNN thought I was being unfair. To whom? To CNN.
A million clichés come to mind, foremost – how does it feel?
I should have seen this coming. I’d been warned, by people in high places, to watch out since the serialized newsroom novel I’ve got running on Amazon.com (“The Bathsheba Deadline”) has offended some people in journalism for being so critical of (left-wing) journalism. I am being closely “monitored.” But I was not prepared for this.
What started it all (well, this time around) was a piece I had published last week titled, “Disproportionate Reporting, Selective Outrage.” I named CNN, among others, as being guilty of lopsided reporting against Israel. Is Qana, for example, the same news media smear job as was the fabrication about Mohammad al-Dura, and later on, Jenin? The gist of my article drew scores of pleasant reviews, but then, via e-mail, came this:
“Jack Engelhard. You are a very unfair and stupid man, do you actually believe what you wrote in your article is true. I just hope Jewish people are all not like you.” This came from Jim Clancy over at CNN and unless someone hacked into his computer, this Jim Clancy co-anchors CNN’s “Your World Today,” which goes around the world. Clancy has covered virtually every hot spot over the past decades.
So he is not nobody, and as it is my right to publish my views, it is his right to publish right back, but with some moderation and intelligence.
Or so you’d think. From a top CNN anchor you do not expect slurs. Please, I don’t even want to ask what he means by that “Jewish people” snort. What does being Jewish have to do with any of this, and are we to assume by the tone of the remark that Mr. Clancy knows no Jewish people? But above all – why bring this up?
But the real question is this: Specifically, what are Mr. Clancy’s objections to my article? Where does it hurt?
Calling me “stupid” does not make a case. (Hey, I’ve been called worse.) Give me specifics and then, let’s get ready to rumble.
I suspect that Mr. Clancy was not happy when I wrote that “we have reason to be suspicious” about much of CNN’s coverage from the Middle East. I cited several examples, but made no mention about Eason Jordan, the former news chief at CNN who, back in April 2003, weeks after Saddam was toppled, wrote (in the New York Times) that during his watch CNN held back the truth about Saddam’s cruelties, as revealing those “awful things” would “have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.”
In other words, CNN’s reporting from Iraq was not truthful (the top man himself said so) and if we got mostly evasions about Iraq, how about the rest of the Middle East? Surely in all those years (up until today) we were not told that in covering the Arab-Israeli conflict, correspondents (not necessarily CNN) were under life-threatening duress if they reported anything derogatory about Palestinian Arabs. (A case where the sword is mightier than the pen.)
We have it from Daniel Seaman, director of Israel’s Government Press Office, and also from independent watchdog groups like CAMERA and HonestReporting.com, that media manipulation goes with the territory. HonestReporting learned that the BBC’s Abu Shamala energized a Hamas rally by declaring that “journalists and media organizations are waging this campaign shoulder to shoulder together with the Palestinian people.” (Hello, Reuters.)
When I was over there, mine own eyes saw plenty of such favoritism.
Seaman has first-hand knowledge that “at the direct instruction of the Palestinian authorities, the offices of the foreign networks in Jerusalem are compelled to hire Palestinian directors and producers. These people determine what is broadcast. The journalists will deny that, but that is the reality.”
Or, Mr. Clancy, is your reality still under the influence of Eason Jordan and answerable to terrorist overlords?
Amazing...and sad, too, PJ. How utterly unprofessional.
Can somebody post a picture of Clancy? The name sounds extremely familiar but I can't put a face with it.
Sooner or later... will settle it all in the streets.
Yer right. Now we know who the loon is !
will = we'll
Actually being a CNN anchor is pretty much like being an anonymous loon.
Would be nice if they would publish the entire email with full headers. That would help authenticate it.
Yeah, that would be nice... except there might be trouble with "privacy" or something like that.
The mystery grows. Now that NewsBusters story is no longer there. What's up?
Big Mouth Clancy also has some 'splainin' to do with his boss (or congratulatory high fives).
That might be it but the CAT is already out of the bag. That e-mail from Clancy was explosive. Replace "Jewish people" with "Black people" and he would right now be out of a job
he should forward the emails to Drudge
Forget it CNN. Bin Laddie called off the war. Peace reins. That oughta get em crapping their tutus.
“Jack Engelhard. You are a very unfair and stupid man, do you actually believe what you wrote in your article is true. I just hope Jewish people are all not like you.”
Jim Clancy's 'sober' comments should bump Mel Gibson off the front page. /sarc.
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