Christiane Amanpour Reportedly Confronted CNN Leadership About ‘Double Standards’ in Israel Coverage
(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was among a number of employees critical of the network’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war during an internal meeting, based on a recording obtained by The Intercept.
The Intercept’s Daniel Boguslaw and Prem Thakker reported on the recording of a Feb. 13 internal CNN meeting at the network’s London Bureau, highlighting a number of objections employees made about a “hostile” environment in regards to coverage of the war in Gaza.
“I think it’s no secret that there is a lot of discontent about how the newsgathering process — and how it played out,” a reporter who worked in Lebanon reportedly told network leadership.
The journalist objected to colleagues “platforming people over and over again, that are either calling for my death, or using very dehumanizing language against me … and people that look like me.”
The reporter also declared, “I was in southern Lebanon during October and November, and it was more distressing for me to turn on CNN, than the bombs falling nearby.”
One specific point raised in the meeting was about coverage of the war going through the Jerusalem bureau.
From The Intercept:
As The Intercept reported in January, the protocol — which has existed for years but was expanded and rebranded as SecondEyes last summer — slows down reporting on Gaza and filters news about the war through journalists in Jerusalem who operate under the shadow of Israel’s military censor.
Amanpour was among those critical of the system, noting “changing copy” and “double standards.”
“You’ve heard from me, you’ve heard my, you know, real distress with SecondEyes — changing copy, double standards, and all the rest,” she reportedly said.
CNN has said the system brings “more expert eyes” on stories and spokesperson Jonathan Hawkins told Intercept, “I would add to this that the staff members on this group include Arab staff based outside Israel, and have done since the group was established.”
Another reporter in the meeting felt that some anchors were not challenging Israeli officials enough.
“I think a lot of us felt very strongly about the fact that there were very senior anchors not challenging people like, comments like, the defense minister using what is considered under international law, genocidal language, ‘human animals,'” that staffer said.
CNN Worldwide CEO and CNN Editor-in-Chief Mark Thompson, CNN U.S. Executive Editor Virginia Moseley, and CNN International General Manager Mike McCarthy all responded by telling employees that their concerns were heard and would be addressed, according to the report.
CNN declined to comment when reached by Mediaite.
Thompson defended the network’s coverage of the war, but admitted “it is impossible to do this kind of story where there are people with incredibly strong opinions on both sides” without making mistakes.
Jon Stewart and others recently knocked CNN for describing more than 100 Gazans being killed while gathering for aid as a “chaotic incident.”
Amanpour also appeared to object to the handling of on-the-ground reporting on the war, calling for more experts to be put in the field. She declared that “video is reportage,” rather than “a talking head on a balcony in a capital.”
Amanpour said:
Bottom line, we do actually have to send experts to these unbelievably difficult, contentious, you know, game-changing stories. It isn’t a place, with due respect, to send people who we want to promote or whatever, or teach. Maybe in the second wave, maybe in the third wave — but in the first wave, it has to be the people who know, through experience, what they’re seeing, and how to speak truth to power on all sides. And how to recognize the difference between political or whatever or terrorist attack, and the humanity, and to be able to put all of that into reporting.
Watch above via CNN.
