You couldn't ask for a clearer demonstration of special-interest control of major MSM outlets in the U.S.<<"The network —
which has employed a former AIPAC official, Wolf Blitzer, as its primary news anchor for the last 15 years — justified its actions by claiming that Nasr’s ‘credibility’ had been ‘compromised,’" wrote Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald . . .
<<Nasr had worked for the Atlanta-based CNN for 20 years . . .
Questions have been raised over why Nasr, known as an uncontroversial reporter of Middle East affairs, was fired so quickly for an off-the-cuff Twitter post.
<<According to some observers,
her unwillingness to conform to the narrative depicted by a number of right-wing news outlets and U.S. Jewish groups that Fadlallah was a terrorist, anti-US and anti-Semitic resulted in CNN receiving pressure to fire her.
<<"Nasr’s comment was enough to spark fierce outrage from the various precincts of the neocon blog/twittersphere . . .
<<While right-wing news outlets, such as the Weekly Standard and the conservative WorldNetDaily gleefully reported on Nasr’s departure from CNN,
others expressed concern for the double standard which has emerged when discussing Middle East affairs in the US mainstream media. <<"The standard here is based on nothing that Nasr reported for CNN. [Her Twitter post] was barely a one sentence expression of sympathy. Firing her was a decision that was completely disconnected from her work so it’s a decision that’s very troubling. Lou Dobbs’s thoughts about immigrants were on CNN every night and CNN stood by him as the criticism mounted and the factual inaccuracies piled up," said Hart.
<<"In this case, a stray comment is enough to terminate someone’s role at CNN almost overnight," he said. "The discrepancy is rather revealing and CNN would have a very hard time revealing precisely what their policy is on this. It’s hard to find precedent for this. She has a history of covering the region and that is not easily replaced.">>
http://original.antiwar.com/eli-clifton/2010/07/08/cnns-objectivity-questioned-in-sacking-of-mideast-reporter/
