The British newspaper The guard publishes a 4,000-word article based on interviews with CNN employees who denounce its pro-Israel bias: “The majority of information since the start of the war, regardless of the accuracy of the original information, has been distorted by a systemic and institutional bias.” in favor of Israel.” The newspaper’s sources requested anonymity because they feared losing their jobs.
• Also read: A “total victory” would deal a “death blow” to Hamas and its pro-Iran allies, Netanyahu says
CNN journalists in the United States and abroad say the broadcasts were distorted by management decisions and a script approval process, resulting in highly biased coverage of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and Israel's retaliation against Gaza.
More than a dozen internal memos and emails obtained by the Guardian show CNN management placing strict limits on broadcasting Palestinian views while taking Israeli government statements at face value. CNN has repeatedly aired inflammatory comments and propaganda from Israeli officials and American supporters of Israel in interviews without challenging them.
- Listen to the Lester Durocher meeting with blogger Normand Lester from the Journal de Montréal QUB :
The exception that proves the rule
CNN journalists speaking to the Guardian praised the incisive reporting of Clarissa Ward, the only foreign journalist to enter Gaza without an Israeli escort.
The CNN correspondent writes in the Washington Post that the Israeli blockade of foreign journalists makes it impossible to provide a complete picture of the tragedy in Gaza. The burden rests solely on a limited number of brave Palestinian journalists, many of whom have fallen victim to bullets and bombs.
Ward added: “We must now be able to report on the death and terrible destruction inflicted on Gaza – locally, independently – in the midst of one of the most intense bombardments in the history of modern warfare.”
- Listen to the Lester Durocher meeting with blogger Normand Lester from the Journal de Montréal QUB :
A turning point for CNN
During the second Palestinian intifada in the early 2000s, the Israeli communications minister called CNN an “evil, biased and unbalanced” channel. CNN founder Ted Turner caused an uproar when he told the Guardian in 2002 that Israel was carrying out terrorism against Palestinians.
For its part, investigative journalism site The Intercept reveals that CNN has had all of its coverage of the Gaza war approved by its Jerusalem bureau, in keeping with the network's long-standing policy. Much of the reporting on the war is therefore shaped by journalists operating in the shadow of Israeli military censorship. According to The Intercept, CNN even hired a former member of Israel's military spokesperson unit as a reporter early in the war.
A content analysis by The Intercept also found that the New York Times and Washington Post's coverage of the war “showed a consistent bias against the Palestinians.” These influential newspapers “focused disproportionately on Israeli deaths in the conflict” and “used emotive language to describe the killings of Israelis but not Palestinians.”