CNN restricted an on-air discussion about a new book dealing with the Iraq war because peace activist Cindy Sheehan threatened to sue over provocative claims about her in the book, one of its co-authors claims."American Mourning" examines how the death of two U.S. soldiers in Iraq affected their families. One of the two is the Sheehan family.
Co-author Melanie Morgan told Cybercast News Service she was slated to appear on CNN's Headline News' "Glenn Beck" program last week and that a producer told her it would be a short segment, focusing on passing claims in the book regarding Sheehan's personal life.
Morgan said she replied: "OK, fine, whatever," and continued on the promotional tour for the book, which deals with the families of Casey Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., and Justin Johnson of Rome, Ga., friends who were killed within five days of each other in separate ambushes in Sadr City, Iraq, during April 2004.
While en route to CNN studios to tape the interview, however, Morgan received another call from the producer telling her that the segment would now deal with "everything but the sex issues."
Morgan -- who is president of the conservative organization Move America Forward -- said when she asked about the reason for the last-minute change, the producer told her it was made because of "legal issues."
Morgan and her co-author, journalist Catherine Moy, told Cybercast News Service that they believe they know what "legal issues" CNN was concerned about when they changed the focus of the interview.
One day earlier, peace activist Sheehan said on the nationally syndicated Stephanie Miller radio show that she planned to sue Morgan and Moy "for every nickel they have."
Sheehan stated during the interview that her anger was based on several statements in the book, including a claim that after her son's death, "Cindy had become addicted to online chat rooms of a pornographic nature."
The book also asserts that Sheehan exchanged "hundreds of explicit emails and instant messages" with a married man.
Sheehan in the radio interview called Moy and Morgan "hate-mongers" engaged in "yellow journalism."
"These people are using our tragedy for profit," she charged. "They always accuse me of exploiting Casey's death for profit, and what are they doing?"
The activist dismissed the statements in the book as "third- or fourth-party information" and "hearsay."
"We're gonna see them in court, and I hope they sell a bunch of their crappy books, because I'm gonna sue them for every nickel they have," Sheehan said.
Janine Iamunno, a spokesperson for CNN Headline News, told Cybercast News Service that the hearsay issue was a prominent part of the decision to alter the substance of the interview with Beck.
"I'm not really going to get into what the conversation was between the booker and Melanie," Iamunno said, "but I will tell you that Glenn felt that there were plenty of other issues with Cindy Sheehan to discuss that weren't hearsay, which is what he felt this element of the book was."
However, Kristen Schremp, a publicist for Morgan and Moy, told Cybercast News Service that the authors "thoroughly researched and documented each and every fact in this book. There are over 600 phone records, emails, instant messages and FEC documents that back up these facts."
"We hope for the sake of Ms. Sheehan's loved ones that we are not forced into litigation," Morgan and Moy said Monday. "But, if the documents are subpoenaed, we will have no choice but to act in accordance with the court's requests, therefore making the documents public."
"It's not like this book was written to pick on Cindy Sheehan," Schremp added. "It honestly was not. It was written, more than anything, to let the soldiers -- the people fighting for our country -- know that not everyone feels the same way that Cindy Sheehan does."
The book emphasizes "how wonderful and patriotic both of these boys were," she added. "We talk about their families and their upbringing and all of the things surrounding that, and within that context, we talk about Cindy Sheehan."
Schremp also noted that the book did not ignore aspects of the second family's reaction to the death of their son, including the fact that Justin Johnson's father, Joe, began drinking again after being sober for more than a decade. He later enlisted and was himself deployed to Iraq.
"Everyone's focusing on one page's worth of information in a 221-page book," she stated. "We're more interested in telling the rest of the story."
Repeated attempts by telephone and email since Friday to obtain response from Sheehan regarding this article were unsuccessful by press time.