Listening Post: The Listening Post - US media double standard
This week on the Listening Post's radar:
the tweet that ended the 20-year career of a CNN journalist and a
Russian social networking site that is not for the masses but strictly
for those of class.
blip tv has better audio ---
http://blip.tv/al-jazeera-
(poor audio) http://www.youtube.com/watch?
blip tv has better audio ---
http://blip.tv/al-jazeera-
Octavia Nasr
Following the death of Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah on July 4, 2010, Nasr tweeted
on the same day that she was "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a
lot..."[1] [2]
Nasr was criticized for this perceived show of sympathy and support
for Hezbollah, an organization which the U.S. government designates as a
terrorist group, amid claims that her stated position was incompatible with her role at CNN as editor of news on the Middle East.[3][4][5]
In response to reactions to her comment, Nasr wrote on July 6 that
the tweet was "an error of judgment". She noted Fadlallah "regularly
praised the terror attacks that killed Israeli citizens. And as recently
as 2008, he said the numbers of Jews killed in the Holocaust were
wildly inflated." She also noted "In 1983, as Fadlallah found his voice
as a spiritual leader, Islamic Jihad - soon to morph into Hezbollah -
bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 299 American and
French peacekeepers."
Nasr concluded her statement by saying that Fadlallah was "revered
across borders yet designated a terrorist. Not the kind of life to be
commenting about in a brief tweet. It's something I deeply regret."[6]
A CNN spokesman responded saying that "CNN regrets any offense her
Twitter message caused. It did not meet CNN’s editorial standards."[7] The following day, on July 7, CNN fired Nasr. In an internal CNN memo announcing Nasr's departure, CNN International’s
senior vice president for newsgathering, Parisa Khosravi, wrote, "We
believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle
Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward."[8]
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