[Media-watch] FAIR action alert on CNN and Fallujah deaths - FAIR - 15/04/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.fair.org/activism/cnn-aljazeera.html

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting     112 W. 27th Street   New York, NY 10001
ACTION ALERT:
CNN to Al Jazeera: Why Report Civilian Deaths?

April 15, 2004

As the casualties mount in the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah, Qatar-based
Al Jazeera has been one of the only news networks broadcasting from the
inside, relaying images of destruction and civilian victims-- including
women and children. But when CNN anchor Daryn Kagan interviewed the
network's editor-in-chief, Ahmed Al-Sheik, on Monday (4/12/04)-- a rare
opportunity to get independent information about events in Fallujah-- she
used the occasion to badger Al-Sheik about whether the civilian deaths were
really "the story" in Fallujah.

Al Jazeera has recently come under sharp criticism from U.S. officials, who
claim the Iraqi casualties are 95 percent "military-age males" (AP,
4/12/04). "We have reason to believe that several news organizations do not
engage in truthful reporting," CPA spokesman Dan Senor said (Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 4/14/04). "In fact it is no reporting." Senior
military spokesman Mark Kimmitt had a suggestion for Iraqis who saw civilian
deaths on Al Jazeera (New York Times, 4/12/04): "Change the channel to a
legitimate, authoritative, honest news station. The stations that are
showing Americans intentionally killing women and children are not
legitimate news sources. That is propaganda, and that is lies."

Acting as the substitute anchor on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports, Kagan began
the interview by asking Al-Sheik to respond to those accusations, citing
U.S. officials "saying the pictures and the reporting that Al Jazeera put on
the air only adds to the sense of frustration and anger and adds to the
problems in Iraq, rather than helping to solve them." After Al-Sheik
defended Al Jazeera's work as "accurate" and the images as representative of
"what takes place on the ground," Kagan pressed on:

  "Isn't the story, though, bigger than just the simple numbers, with all
due respect to the Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives-- the story
bigger than just the numbers of people who were killed or the fact that they
might have been killed by the U.S. military, that the insurgents, the people
trying to cause problems within Fallujah, are mixing in among the civilians,
making it actually possibly that even more civilians would be killed, that
the story is what the Iraqi insurgents are doing, in addition to what is the
response from the U.S. military?"
CNN's argument that a bigger story than civilian deaths is "what the Iraqi
insurgents are doing" to provoke a U.S. "response" is startling. Especially
in light of official U.S. denials of civilian deaths, video footage of women
and children killed by the U.S. military is evidence that needs to be seen.

And Al Jazeera is not alone in reporting a reality very different from the
one U.S. officials describe. Authorities have been able to keep a tight rein
on the information flow from Fallujah, with only one small television
network pool in the city that "travels and operates" under the watch of the
Marines (Television Week, 4/12/04). (It's noteworthy that the U.S. has
reportedly demanded, as a condition for lifting the siege of Fallujah, that
Al Jazeera cameras be removed from the city-- IslamOnline.net, 4/9/04.)

But independent journalists reporting from Fallujah have described a scene
consistent with the one broadcast by Al Jazeera. Rahul Mahajan, a U.S.
journalist in Fallujah, estimated that of the 600 Iraqis killed in Fallujah,
200 were women and 100 young children, with many of the adult male
casualties also non-combatants. He reported witnessing "a young woman, 18
years old, shot in the head" and "a young boy with massive internal
bleeding" at a clinic (CommonDreams.org, 4/12/04). Mahajan recounted that
during the "cease-fire," "Americans were attacking with heavy artillery but
primarily with snipers"-- with ambulances among the targets. The sniper
activity was also reported by U.S. journalist Dahr Jamail
(NewStandardNews.net, 4/11/04): "Fallujah residents say Marines are opening
fire randomly on unarmed civilians and have attacked clearly marked
ambulances."

When reports from the ground are describing hundreds of civilians being
killed by U.S. forces, CNN should be looking to Al Jazeera's footage to see
if it corroborates those accounts-- not badgering Al Jazeera's editor about
why he doesn't suppress that footage.


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ACTION: Please tell CNN that there is no bigger story in Fallujah than the
deaths of civilians. Ask the network to report the reality of the siege-- 
including eyewitness accounts and video footage shot by non-embedded
journalists-- before dismissing civilian victims as the responsibility of
the resistance.

CONTACT:
CNN
Wolf Blitzer Reports
wolf at cnn.com

As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if
you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair at fair.org with your
correspondence.