CNN Chief Orders 'Balance' in War News

Washington Post ^ | 10/31/2001 | Howard Kurtz

[Pokey78]

The chairman of CNN has ordered his staff to balance images of civilian devastation in Afghan cities with reminders that the Taliban harbors murderous terrorists, saying it "seems perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in Afghanistan."

In a memo to his international correspondents, Walter Isaacson said: "As we get good reports from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, we must redouble our efforts to make sure we do not seem to be simply reporting from their vantage or perspective. We must talk about how the Taliban are using civilian shields and how the Taliban have harbored the terrorists responsible for killing close to 5,000 innocent people."

[Clovis_Skeptic]

p i n g ) ) )

[Migraine]

Until then, it's BS!

I hope you don't mean "C"-BS; because CBS stands for CONSTANT BS!

[spectre]

"When I see it I'll believe it."

I'm with you.

As they say in legal circles:

"The intent is not the act."

[JohnHuang2]

Thanks for posting, Pokey78 =^)

[Mark]

My channel block still stays on!

[PhiKapMom]

Get ready to faint!

[Diddle E. Squat]

Obviously the poll numbers are in.

Wonder how the war slut is taking all this?

[Monitor]

"I want to make sure we're not used as a propaganda platform," Isaacson said in an interview yesterday. Then, as a creaping smile betrayed his words, he started to laugh, and yelled, "Psych!"

[ForGod'sSake]

Say WHAT?!?!?! Where's my salts Martha? You gotta get a load 'o this!

FGS

[D-fendr]

Too bad CNN wasn't around for WWII:

"Leni Riefenstahl’s films of the Third Reich are just so darn good. We should work harder to remind folks, after we run them a few dozen times, that these are not necessarily nice people.

[PhiKapMom]

Christine is not having a happy day where she is at I would say! Cannot believe they just admitted they have been bias! Made my whole day! Bet their numbers are simply awful and that they have been getting tons of email and phone calls that are shall we say "not complimentary!" LOL! I would love to have been a fly on the wall to have heard Judy Woodruff being told to say this!

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Is CNN the only network that didn't receive an anthrax letter? (of the biggies, that is)

[Bounceback]

This is startling news. Something has caused them to be afraid.

[Salvation]

Amazing move by CNN?

[headsonpikes]

I thought from the headline it would be about CNN's balancing its coverage of 'atrocities' committed by the USN and the USAF.

[jackchaos]

I'm sick of what I'm seeing on the news channels. The media wants an action sequence from the DOD so they can headline in their newspapers. From the beginning, Bush has repeated that this is a "DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR" and it would take "PATIENCE". The media are deaf and dumb.

[infowarrior]

the media are deaf and dumb...

Actually, "dumb, and dumber" apply, not deafness. They hear, but are incapable, or unwilling, to understand...

the infowarrior

[Penny1]

From the beginning, Bush has repeated that this is a "DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR" and it would take "PATIENCE". The media are deaf and dumb.

Yeah, and he also said there would be things we would see on TV and things we might NEVER see...

Sometimes, I really wish Ari or Rummy or whoever is getting grilled about this in one of those PCs would bring a replay with them of Bush's address to Congress. And play it over and over and over and over again...

Not that it would do any good, but it might be kinda funny...

-penny

[brat]

"...saying it "seems perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in Afghanistan."

SUUUUUURE! It wouldn't have anything to do with ratings drop, would it??? LOL