| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| CNN's Anderson Cooper exposes Hezbollah's dog-and-pony show |
| 2006-07-26 |
| by Rich Noyes at NewsBusters Emphasis added; hit the link for a transcript and still photos. On Monday’s "Anderson Cooper 360," CNN’s Anderson Cooper related his visit to a Hezbollah-controlled section of Beirut where he was supposed to photograph certain damaged buildings, part of the terrorist group’s strategy of generating news stories about Lebanese civilian casualities caused by Israeli bombs. But instead of merely transmitting Hezbollah’s unverified and unverifiable claims to the outside world, Cooper — to his credit — exposed the efforts by Hezbollah to manipulate CNN and other Western reporters. It’s quite a contrast from the much more accommodating approach taken by his colleague, Nic Robertson, in a report that aired on a variety of CNN programs (including AC360) back on July 18, a report that Robertson himself has now conceded was put together under Hezbollah's control. Unlike Robertson, Cooper was explicit about how Hezbollah’s operatives had set all of the rules: “Young men on motor scooters followed our every movement. They only allowed us to videotape certain streets, certain buildings,” he explained. He countered Hezbollah claims that Israel targets civilians by pointing out that the group based itself in civilian areas and that Israel's air force drops leaflets warning of attacks. Cooper exposed for CNN viewers that the sight of speeding ambulances, sirens blaring, was just a phony play staged by Hezbollah: “One by one, they’ve been told to turn on their sirens and zoom off so that all the photographers here can get shots of ambulances rushing off to treat civilians....These ambulances aren’t responding to any new bombings. The sirens are strictly for effect.” CNN showed cameramen from other news organizations dutifully photographing the ambulances as they went by. Anderson Cooper is my new favorite news guy. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #6 Me thinks he's trying to apply for a job at Fox. |
| Posted by: Thoth 2006-07-26 22:43 |
| #5 What's he trying to do? Destroy our news |
| Posted by: Eason Jordan 2006-07-26 13:45 |
| #4 I guess he only gets one shot at this, so he made it a good one. I wonder if he'll get any more interviews with terrorists anywhere in the region. Don't expect any other reporters to file similar reports any time soon, especially CNN. |
| Posted by: gorb 2006-07-26 12:57 |
| #3 I saw that show and my jaw did drop at that comment by Anderson. I watch his show occationaly however I really hate his self-loving glamor shots. Reporters should report stories not report themselves near the story. But decent show worth checking out especially the late night one when Fox is just stuck in reruns of earlier shows. I would like to see Fox change that practise. |
| Posted by: C-Low 2006-07-26 12:45 |
| #2 He should be fired for not doing his job. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2006-07-26 12:29 |
| #1 A newsman at CNN with ethics. Good for him!! Just might get me to watch his show. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-07-26 12:24 |