Softball CNN Interview With Iranian Ambassador Borders On Propaganda January 4, 2020 By David Marcus
https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/04/softball-cnn-interview-with-iranian-ambassador-borders-on-propaganda/
For three years now, CNN has dedicated itself almost exclusively to attacking Donald Trump. It’s own laughable claim of being straight, objective news is clearly abject nonsense to anyone who has watched it for more than 5 minutes. And that’s all fine. All news outlets have their biases, and while it would be nice if CNN owned theirs, it doesn’t really matter if they refuse to. But last night something happened that didn’t just look like anti-Trump sentiment, but rather straight up Iranian propaganda.
Anchor Erin Burnett interviewed Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mavid Ravanchi, and what viewers were treated to was not so much an interview as a joint press release. From the first question, whether the US had committed an act of war by killing Qasem Solemiani, to the final one, whether this act of war “changes the game,” everything was framed as poor Iran being bullied by a President Trump who at best overreacted and who at worst is lying to the American people.
Not only was there no push back whatsoever in regard to any of the claims made by Ravanchi, several vital questions went completely unasked. How on earth can one interview the Iranian ambassador without asking about Iranian support for a violent attack on an American embassy last week? Or how about an attack on a base that left an American contractor dead? Or the shooting down of an American drone over international waters?
Time and again in the interview Ravanchi claimed that by killing Solemiani the US had moved from an economic war (pulling out of the Iran Deal) to a military war. But Iran has engaged in military actions against America and American interest for months now. The network that fatuously insists they are all about the facts allowed the ambassador to flat out lie to the their viewers without the least bit of resistance.
This is simply journalistic malpractice at best. At worst, it is giving comfort to an enemy dedicated to the destruction of the United States (Death to America) by handing over the CNN platform for the pushing of propaganda, including failing to mention at all the Iranian regime’s brutal and murderous crackdown on protesters in its own country last month.
Ironically, it was only just back in September that the same Erin Burnett was chiding the president for not backing up his tough rhetoric with action. She said, “Trump does love to issue threats and then do nothing.” Given this grave concern on the part of Burnett wouldn’t she first of all be happy to see the president follow through? And more importantly shouldn’t she have pointed out to the ambassador that these threats have been out there for some time and yet Iran continued with its deadly provocations?
If CNN wants to be the media wing of the anti-Trump resistance, then so be it. But when that starts to turn into handing over airtime, to a brutal, anti-semitic, anti-gay, terrorist regime for softball puff propagandistic interviews, it is walking into very dangerous territory. Hey CNN, Iran is not the “good guys,” it is not a peace-loving nation being abused by the big bad United States. Next time you interview an Iranian official, maybe ask some actual questions instead of reading off of their script and showing them deference.
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