CNN punished journalist for fulfilling a core duty of journalism

By GLENN GRUNWALD

CNN yesterday suspended its global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, for two weeks for the crime of posting a tweet critical of the House vote to ban Syrian refugees. Whether by compulsion or choice, she then groveled in apology. This is the original tweet along with her subsequent expression of repentance:

This all happened after The Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple complained that her original tweet showed “bias.” The claim that CNN journalists must be “objective” and are not permitted to express opinions is an absolute joke. CNN journalists constantly express opinions without being sanctioned.

With power of social media growing, police now monitoring and criminalizing online speech

Freedom of speech of the reactionary ruling classes

By GLENN GREENWALD

The Intercept (Jan. 6) – ON March 6, 2012, six British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by a roadside explosive device, and a national ritual of mourning and rage ensued. Prime Minister David Cameron called it a “desperately sad day for our country.” A British teenager, Azhar Ahmed, observed the reaction for two days and then went to Facebook to angrily object that the innocent Afghans killed by British soldiers receive almost no attention from British media. He opined that the UK’s soldiers in Afghanistan are guilty, their deaths deserved, and are therefore going to hell.

‘Secrets for sale’ and the Snowden affair: The Greenwald-Omidyar-NSA connection

Despite what Time Magazine would have us believe, there is no doubt that the most influential newsmaker of the year has been Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and NSA subcontractor who at the age of 29 became the unlikely center of global attention with his release of documents allegedly detailing the inner workings of various NSA spying programs.

Of the many intriguing aspects of this story, by far one of the most frustrating is that, other than a few interviews and press conferences, almost everything we know about Snowden, his motivations, and the documents themselves come from intermediaries who have found themselves in the position of spokespeople on the case.

Espionage: Harper Government turning Canada into rogue state

Governments Must Uphold Public Right, Not Monopoly Right! 

TML Weekly Information Project (Oct. 12) – THE HARPER GOVERNMENT is transforming Canada into a rogue state that goes around the world attacking sovereign nations militarily, economically and politically, overtly and covertly, as part of a hooligan gang of allies led by the U.S. Its actions are in defiance of the norms and laws governing international relations, precisely what it falsely accuses many other countries of doing. At every opportunity and in every venue at home and abroad the Harperites seek to divide people on any basis they can and incite conflict among peoples and nations in order to advance the narrow interests of the monopolies with which they are aligned, and block any organized opposition to imperialism and monopoly right.

U.S. global spying: subversion of Mexico, France

By TONY SEED

Der Spiegel: Fresh leak on US spying – NSA accessed Mexican president’s email (full text see below). Another disclosure from former CIA agent Edward Snowden has revealed that, as part of its global spy network against the nations and peoples of the world, the United States has been eavesdropping on the Mexican government for years – in particular former President Felipe Calderon, whose email messages have been targeted. According to the report, the spying into the email server of the “Mexican Presidencia domain” contained “diplomatic, economic and leadership communications” that allowed for “deep insight into policymaking and the political system.” An NSA division for “particularly difficult missions” called the “Tailored Access Operations” handled the operation.  The covert operation was carried out in conformity with an April 2013 list that enumerates the US’ surveillance priorities. That list, classified as “secret,” was authorized by the White House and “presidentially approved,” according to internal NSA documents, Der Siegel reports.

USA: The accelerating assault on journalism

Some prominent media figures applaud the criminalization of investigative reporting, something not confined to the USA. On November 30, 2010 the former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Thomas Flanagan, publicly called for the assassination of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on CBC TV’s Power and Politics. Most media in Canada passed over his call without comment. Yet, according to the US media watchdog group FAIR, “While whistleblowers have been the chief targets of the harsh crackdown on media challenges to official secrecy, journalists themselves are increasingly in the government’s sights.”

FAIR (Aug. 27) – U.S. soldier Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning’s 35-year sentence represents the harshest punishment issued to date for providing media with evidence of government wrongdoing (Forbes, 8/21/13). She is the first whistleblower to be convicted under the Espionage Act, ratifying the new reality that those who give the press information that the government wants to keep secret will henceforth be treated as spies.

US state-sponsored ‘news’: ‘I received orders to manipulate news to demonize Syria and Iran’

Ex-CNN reporter: I received orders to manipulate news to demonize Syria and Iran

• CNN and the business of state-sponsored TV news
• Why didn’t CNN international air its own ‘iRevolution’ documentary?

Amber Lyon on CNN, commenting on the March 2011 repression in Bahrain

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported from Prague on March 30 that ex-CNN on-air correspondent reporter Amber Lyon had revealed that “during her work for the channel she received orders to send false news and exclude some others which the US administration did not favour with the aim to create a public opinion in favour of launching an aggression on Iran and Syria.”

CNN and the business of state-sponsored TV news

The network seriously compromises journalism on the feudal Gulf states, footmen of Washington, by blurring the line between advertising and editorial. GLENN GREENWALD in the London Guardian

• Report: why didn’t CNNi air its own ‘iRevolution’ documentary?
• US state-sponsored ‘news’: ‘I received orders to manipulate news to demonize Syria and Iran’

CNN’s state-sponsored program on Kazakhstan. Photograph: via CNN

TODAY I reported on the refusal of CNN International (CNNi) to broadcast an award-winning documentary, “iRevolution”, that was produced in early 2011 as the Arab Spring engulfed the region and which was highly critical of the regime in Bahrain. The documentary, featuring CNN‘s on-air correspondent Amber Lyon, viscerally documented the brutality and violence the regime was using against its own citizens who were peacefully protesting for democracy. Commenting on why the documentary did not air on CNNi, CNN’s spokesman cited “purely editorial reasons”.

Why didn’t CNN international air its own ‘iRevolution’ documentary?

A former CNN correspondent defies threats from her former employer to speak out about self-censorship at the network

• CNN and the business of state-sponsored TV news
• US state-sponsored ‘news’: ‘I received orders to manipulate news to demonize Syria and Iran’

A Bahraini protester in Manama | Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty Images

IN LATE MARCH 2011, as the Arab Spring was spreading, CNN sent a four-person crew to Bahrain to produce a one-hour documentary on the use of internet technologies and social media by democracy activists in the region. Featuring on-air investigative correspondent Amber Lyon, the CNN team had a very eventful eight-day stay in that small, US-backed kingdom.