Glenn Greenwald calls out CNN’s awful
coverage of Paris attacks on CNN
(Credit: CNN)week before Thanksgiving saw some of the most overtly xenophobic,
militaristic and fact-free media proclamations since the weeks in the
lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Glen Greenwald appeared on CNN
over the weekend to call out the cable news network for its role leading
the beat of war drums.
“Reliable
Sources” host Brian Stelter asked Greenwald how he backs up his
assertion that “the press is hungry for war” in the wake of the Paris
attacks. In an article criticizing CNN’s post-Paris attack coverage,
Greenwald said “CNN has basically become state TV.”
“The lesson
that the American media has supposedly learned after the 9/11 attack,”
Greenwald began, “was that allowing political and military intelligence
officials to make all kinds of claims without scrutinizing and
questioning and pushing them back is a really destructive thing to do.”
“It
propagandizes the population,” he argued. “It leads to things like
torture, Guantanamo, the attack on Iraq based on false pretenses.”
“I
think that CNN has actually unfortunately led the way in
this,” Greenwald bluntly stated about the network’s coverage following
the terror attacks in Paris.
“I think the worst example, probably
the most despicable interview we’ve seen in the last several years were
two CNN anchors, John Vause and Isha Sesay, who told a French Muslim
political activist that he and all other Muslims bear, quote,
‘responsibility’ for the attack in Paris because all Muslims must
somehow be responsible,” Greenwald explained. In that interview, both
anchors confronted their Muslim guest about a collective Muslim “responsibility” in the wake of the terror attacks.
Stelter pushed back, suggesting that Greenwald
might be “cherry-picking” an example to prove a point, but Greenwald had
quite the reel of CNN tape to wind back for Stelter.
Greenwald mentioned a former CIA head’s unchallenged statement
that Edward Snowden deserved to be hung during an interview with CNN’s
Brooke Baldwin; CNN reporter, Jim Acosta’s, G20 press conference question
to President Obama pushing for a war with “these bastards”; CIA chief
John Brennan’s repeated false claims on CNN that the terror attacks were
planned through encrypted techniques as a result of Snowden’s NSA
leaks; and what Greenwald described as Christiane Amanpour’s repeated
on-air demands that President Obama send ground troops into Syria.
“I
think what Jim did is totally appropriate,” Greenwald told Stelter. “I
think it’s great that Christiane Amanpour can go on CNN all the time and
… expresses whatever opinions she wants. That to me is journalism, is
criticizing politicians.”
“That’s why Elise Labott did nothing
wrong as well,” Greenwald said, contrasting the network’s treatment of
its global affairs correspondent, suspended for tweeting her disapproval of the House vote to severely limit the number of Syrian refugees relocated to the U.S. last week.
“The
fact that CNN singled her out and punished her doesn’t show the
objectivity as required of CNN reporters. It shows that when you want
more war, when you want to stigmatize Muslims, but defending Muslims is
not allowed. I think that’s what signals it sent.”
Watch Greenwald call out CNN on CNN below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MWMTccSZR6g
