CNN is reportedly facing backlash from some staffers who claim there is “systematic and systemic bias against Israel within the network.”
CNN’s daily news coverage of the Israel-Hamas war is run under a strict set of directives, including restrictions on quoting Hamas and other Palestinian views, the British news agency said. guardian.
Meanwhile, the newspaper, which cited reports, internal memos and emails from six CNN newsrooms in the United States and abroad, said staffers complained that Israeli government statements were taken at face value.
“We fundamentally reject the idea that our reporting on the aftermath of the October 7th terrorist attacks was unfair.th This attack was never fair,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement to the Post.
“For the past four months, we have been vigorously pursuing voices from Gaza and the Palestinian perspective, in addition to Israeli voices, including Hamas.”
A spokesperson said the network’s “internal processes reflect our commitment to accuracy and we have led industry-wide calls for access to Gaza to report from within the enclave.” ” he added.
CNN officials told the Guardian that the network has not conducted interviews with Hamas since October, adding that the network is not prohibited from conducting such interviews.
“It’s not journalism to say you won’t talk to someone because you don’t like what they’re doing. CNN has talked to many terrorists and enemies of America over the years. We interviewed Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. We also interviewed Osama bin Laden. So what’s different this time?” said one CNN staffer.
In another example of reported guardrails, CNN’s so-called Jerusalem bureau scrutinizes every story the network broadcasts live and reports on its website about the Israel-Gaza war.
CNN’s Jerusalem bureau is subject to the same rules as the Israel Defense Forces’ military censorship unit. intercept report.
The IDF unit’s regulations dictate which subjects are off-limits to the press, including information about hostages and weapons taken by fighters in the Gaza Strip, and are a long-standing law for the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network. has guided CNN’s reporting for many years. According to The Intercept.
One anonymous CNN staff member told the Guardian that these institutional rules have shaped the station’s coverage of the long-running Israel-Gaza conflict, but that CNN’s reporting has had a negative impact on CNN’s reporting, particularly since the October 7 Hamas ambush. He said he was having an impact.
“Ultimately, CNN’s reporting on the Israel-Gaza war amounts to journalistic misconduct,” the official told the outlet.
Other staff members told the Guardian that some journalists, despite their experience reporting on Israel and Palestine, do not believe CNN will allow them to tell the full story, so He said he had avoided reporting the issue.
The Guardian reported that additional reporters believed that senior editors were intentionally not assigning “” to stories about the war.
“It’s clear that those who don’t belong are reporting on the war and those who are, don’t,” a CNN source told the program.
CNN journalists also criticized editor-in-chief and CEO Mark Thompson’s “tone,” which they linked to the station’s pro-Israel bias.
Mr. Thompson, a veteran news executive who left his post as director-general of the New York Times and joined CNN on October 9, was under pressure from the Israeli government while serving as director-general of the BBC for more than a year. He was accused of giving in. Ten years ago, in 2005, he pulled one of Britain’s leading broadcasters’ most prominent correspondents from his post in Jerusalem, according to the Guardian.
In his first editorial meeting, days after the Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages, Thompson said CNN’s coverage of the rapidly evolving incident was “fundamentally excellent.” The Guardian reported that.
He then emailed a two-page memo to employees, obtained by the Guardian, in which he told reporters: “The immediate cause of this current conflict is Hamas attacks, mass murders, and kidnappings of civilians.” ”
According to the Guardian, a staffer responded to Mr Thompson’s memo by saying, “Aside from the directive that Hamas is ultimately responsible for whatever the Israelis do, the editors have not made this memo How do you read it?”Every action by Israel, whether it’s dropping a massive bomb that wipes out an entire street or wiping out an entire family, is ultimately fabricated to create a narrative that says, “They’re coming.” It turns out. ”
