CNN has some ’splainin to do
TBlumer at BizzyBlog highlights an embarrassing journalistic track record for the cable news giant. From 1998 to today there are five instances where CNN has been involved in falsehoods or lies, mostly involving the United States military, and in ways that make the military look bad.
The latest bit is centered on accusations of a CNN reporter staging a story about Nigerian resistance fighters. CNN denies it had anything to do with it and is hanging the reporter, Jeff Koinage, out to dry. Koinage says otherwise in correspondence to his Swiss lover:
“But everything was done in agreement with CNN and in accordance with their usual standards. But you do not get such a story without bribing . . . You have to have financial resources. But at the end, it was worth it. CNN has its story and I have my ‘fame.’”
The only shining spot in CNN’s overseas reporting, specifically their military reporting, that I can see is the work done by Arwa Damon when she was embedded with US troops searching for three kidnapped soldiers. That was outstanding work and deserves praise. That it is the exception and not the norm warrants much criticism on CNN and maybe in part on the US military. When Michael Totten and Michael Yon are the best and they work for no major news organization, something is wrong with American journalism.