CNN Is Shamelessly Transforming Itself Into Iranian State Television, It's Not Even Trying to Hide It
It may be tough to find a news network that has worked harder to discredit itself within the span of a week than CNN. The repeated ways we have seen it forced to apologize and correct items regarding its coverage of the bombing attempt in New York City on Saturday have been more than enough. Yet, they continue to pump out the examples of deeply fractured “journalism."
Abby Phillip managed to embarrass herself in primetime (that is, if she is capable of feeling such an emotion) by pushing out the fake claim that the ISIS-inspired attackers went after the mayor. And yet another senior reporter was belching out the same false narrative – AFTER the network and Philip had been repeatedly forced to recant.
Seriously, this has all been enough to recalibrate the corporate acronym to: Corrections News Network.
As bad as all this has been, they do not seem to stop. There is an ocean inlet in my area where a drawbridge has a narrow passage. On weekends during the tide change, we would occasionally grab some beers, take them to the embankment, and spectate during high-traffic times on the water. The current ripping through would provide passive rubbernecking as the inexperienced boaters would deliver entertainment. Johnboats with their bowlines wrapped around the prop would be carried back out to sea, or 50-foot cabin cruisers might go through the channel sideways. There is a similar experience felt now, as CNN appears to be lost at the helm.
Seriously, after your boat has hit a reef, such as the network has metaphorically done this week, the last thing you want to do is leverage that throttle farther forward. Yet this is what appears to be taking place. It is rather astounding to sit back and behold as this supposedly season news outlet is intent on forging ahead, after ripping a gaping maw in the hull of its credibility.
When it had been announced that CNN was granted exclusive access to Iran by government officials, most rational thinkers scoffed at the type of coverage that would ensue. Brian Stelter reacted to this backlash, attempting to tut-tut his way through the controversial decision, as if his condescension would curtail any reputational damage.
The only problem: the coverage meant he had to hold the same nose he was trying to look down with his pleas not to critique it. He tried to frame things with criticism of how Israel is controlling wartime information, then he bristled at the implication that foreign correspondent Frederik Pleitgen permitted into Tehran was less than stellar journalist practice. Stelter makes it known that CNN dispatches from inside the target zone always carry the modifier, "CNN operates in Iran only with government permission," a proper designation.
Pleitgen’s reports are recorded, not carried live, suggesting they have been vetted by the regime. Then he recently had a sit-down interview with an Iranian foreign minister, and the line of questioning was of whiffle-ball caliber. Few if any challenges to the regime’s activities, and certainly no mention of the tens of thousands of protesters who had been executed over the past couple of months.
IRGCNN now claims that while CNN has the "permission" of the regime to operate in Iran, the network "maintains full editorial control over what it reports."
They then proceed to allowing an Iranian official to push their propaganda unchallenged and claims that America is the problem.
The network went full Iranian state TV next. That is not hyperbolic pearl-clutching on my part; CNN literally turned over its airwaves to the state, allowing for the state-run Iranian news feed to be broadcast for at least a four-minute interval.
This can hardly be considered a vital report, as the claim had been made that the country’s new Supreme Leader (an apparent upgrade from the cheaper Value Meal Leader) would be delivering comments.
Actually…in retrospect, maybe this was an accurate description; the missing cardboard cutout Ayatollah may have delivered his comments. He does not appear on camera, and there were no video clips of him making his statement. Of note here is that CNN did not crudely cut away, no on-air host(ess) jumped in to correct things, and the network's pet fact-checker, Daniel Dale, was not brought on to dispute any claim that had been delivered. You know, all of the things we have come to expect to take place if President Trump is speaking.
This type of take-our-word-for-it reporting from the Iranian press is not too far removed from what we have come to expect from standard CNN broadcasts. It is entirely possible that, in the eyes of the network's executives, this ridiculous presentation meets the alleged editorial rigor they love to tout.
This entire week has been just a shameful series of reductive journalism, but - much like its primetime hostess, Philip - I am not sure CNN is capable of shame at this stage.
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