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Keeping a Straight Face?

Dear HonestReporting Member, Just when we thought that CNN could get no worse… In discussing the question of who planted the bomb that killed four Palestinian policemen in Gaza on Wednesday, CNN quotes two sources:…

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Dear HonestReporting Member,

Just when we thought that CNN could get no worse…

In discussing the question of who planted the bomb that killed four Palestinian policemen in Gaza on Wednesday, CNN quotes two sources:

1) the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and

2) the extremist Palestinian Popular Resistance Group

Nowhere does CNN quote any Israeli source. Israel has repeatedly denied any involvement in the bombing, though CNN readers would have no way of knowing that.

How can CNN possibly claim to be fair, objective and unbiased?

Can Mike Hanna, Jerold Kessel, Eason Jordan, Tom Johnson and Rick Davis really say this with a straight face?

The same CNN article refers to an exchange of gunfire between Beit Jala and Gilo. In the hundreds of articles since Gilo first came under fire six months ago, it is universally accepted — even among Israel’s harshest critics — that Israel is responding to Palestinian-initiated gunfire from Beit Jala.

Except for CNN, which says:

“Clashes continued in the West Bank overnight Wednesday as Israeli troops opened fire on the town of Bate Jala and Palestinians opened fire on the Jewish settlement of Gilo.”

The implication is obvious. First, Israeli troops opened fire. Only then did the Palestinians shoot.

There’s more.

The previous day, CNN published a report by Reuters which referred to the 1948 War of Independence. As is common knowledge, Israel was invaded by 5 Arab armies in 1948, and Israel lost key parcels of land including the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem and towns in the Gush Etzion region. At the same time, Jews living in Arab countries like Iraq, Egypt and Morocco quickly became targets of pogroms and had to flee to safe haven in Israel.

CNN states it like this:

“Palestinians mark the birth of Israel on May 15, 1948, as their ‘Nakba’ or catastrophe, which led to the loss of 78 percent of historic Palestine. Some 700,000 Palestinians left or were forced to flee their homes in the fighting that accompanied the declaration of the Jewish state.”

No mention of who started the war. No mention of Israeli loss of land. No mention of the 650,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries who similarly “left or were forced to flee their homes.”

Read the article:
Bombing of Policemen

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Also write to Steve Case (the CEO of AOL, CNN’s parent company), as well as his two assistants:

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Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias. We will not give up the fight.

HonestReporting.com

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