Last week, at the death of one of Hizbullah’s spiritual mentors, Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, Octavia Nasr, CNN’s special consultant on Arab culture sent out a tweet expressing her sadness.
The tweet caused a great stir, especially among those familiar with both Fadlallah career and statements - he approved Palestinian “martyrdom operations” targeting civilians, denied the Holocaust, and may well have masterminded the attack on the US barracks in 1983 - and Nasr’s widespread knowledge of the issues.
This prompted a rapid apology/explanation from Nasr: I didn’t approve of his hatred of the US and Israel and approval of terrorism, but he was good on women. (Wouldn’t that be considered dual loyalty? Sure he’s a hateful guy when it comes to the US and other democracies, but hey, he was okay on the subject of my gender.)
Not surprisingly, perhaps, this is not a slip in terms of Nasr’s sympathies. Her coverage at CNN is shot through with support for Arab anti-Zionism, a support which she translated into (scarcely) impartial language.
Here she is, discussing the social networking about the flotilla. Her approval of the “Pro-Palestinian side” is obvious not only in her comments, but her smile and tone.
Note her posting of Didi Remez’s tweet at 4:03. Note also that she admits that the IDF has posted footage (clearly indicating that their soldiers had been attacked), but rather than explain that to her listeners, she prefers to feature “prominent” Israeli journalists and to repeat the claim that “nothing can justify” these deaths.
Here she is during operation Cast Lead, explaining the anger of the Arab world.
She clearly sides with the street crowds (aroused by their own media’s gruesome images) against both Israel and the Arab leaders for their inaction. She’s cleaned up their message by paraphrasing it as “Help Gaza, do something.”
It’s too bad it took CNN so long - Nasr worked for them for twenty years - to realize that they were basically giving a platform to someone who approved of the most violent anti-Israel sentiment in the Muslim world and sympathetically reported it to CNN’s audience.
The good news? She went the path of Helen Thomas. CNN has “removed her” from her position.
Of course, CNN’s relative probity should be compared with the stunningly approving obituary produced at the - surprise! - Guardian.
obviously CNN knew who and what she was and what she was saying and claiming. Like Obama sitting in a pew at Rev Wright’s church for 20 years, Octavia Nasr was at CNN for 20 years. They had to know what she was doing. Unfortunately for both Octavia and CNN, she gave herself away too blatantly. Her open adoration of Fadlallah, a fanatic Judeophobe, was too blatant to not damage the whole network’s credibility.
Comment by Eliyahu — July 8, 2010 @ 5:54 am
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Pingback by The Day In Israel: Wednesday July 7th, 2010 – GlobalPost (blog) | Snafu Blog — July 8, 2010 @ 8:34 am
Heh!
British diplomat eulogizes Fadlallah
Obviously we know what the British Foreign Office has been and is.
Comment by Cynic — July 8, 2010 @ 10:56 am
Totten on the Nasr incident:
http://www.michaeltotten.com/2010/07/cnn-editor-mourns-and-respects-a-promoter-of-resistance-and-terror.php
I am puzzled by the firing though: why would CNN deem her comment as cause for firing her? CNNers have been doing much worse without being fired.
I would not be surprised if she popped now working for one of the arab channels.
Comment by incognito — July 8, 2010 @ 11:55 am
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It’s because she was caught out acting independently of her employer. She was actually saying this in a private capacity, which meant she couldn’t hide behind the “journalist” defence. CNN would then have had to justify employing someone who was a terrorist supporter.
Comment by Richard — July 8, 2010 @ 4:58 pm
Richard,
But OTOH CNN is now accused of caving in to the jews,
which insofar as CNN is concerned, is probably much worse than her indepedence on the side of terror.
Comment by incognito — July 8, 2010 @ 5:19 pm
See what I mean:
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2010/07/commenters_at_huffington_post.html
Comment by incognito — July 8, 2010 @ 5:23 pm
There is a new media angle here - people of many stripes on many different issues say things in email, on twitter and facebook. Ms Nasr felt safe to express her private view when she was actually standing on a soapbox in the public square. Like Hellen Thomas or General McChrystal etc etc. McLuhan points out that new technologies are extensions of ourselves. AND THAT THOSE EXTENSIONS CAUSE US TO GO NUMB. I’m sure Ms Nasr when she was 7 knew, as little girls generally do by that age, when it was appropriate to whisper, but all grown up and a hot shot journalist and she is just another fool on Twitter.
Comment by Lorenz Gude — July 9, 2010 @ 5:28 am
Lorenz,
Indeed, the atmosphere is now such that Nasr thought she could do that, just like Helen Thomas, Christoff and many others did. And when these people do, they empower others to follow. That’s how momentum is built. Release everybody from any inhibitions in expressing anti-jewish sentiments they.
At least she is arab.
Comment by incognito — July 9, 2010 @ 12:11 pm
I noticed an encomium for Fadlallah on Daily Kos as well (quoting, surprise, Juan Cole).
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/7/5/881839/-Muslim-Leader-Dies-
From the Comments on Daily Kos:
the loss of an important moderate shiite is very sad for all of us.
Comment by RedPencil — July 10, 2010 @ 7:45 am
Oh and Daily Kos also threw a well rec’d Pity Party for Nasr (a follow up to several pity parties for Helen Thomas, some stomach churning).
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/7/7/882388/-CNN-Was-Also-Very-Liberally-As-Well-Today-Toooo!!!!!!!-(Updated)
From the Kos diary:
Comment by RedPencil — July 10, 2010 @ 8:02 am
Which only reinforces the puzzle as to why they fired her,knowing this was gonna be the reaction.
Comment by incognito — July 10, 2010 @ 11:04 am
because her naked partisanship embarassed cnn so much among the general public. And the Hizbullah is notorious for the slaughter of US marines in Beirut in 1983. Of course, huffington post readers are it seems not so well informed.
Comment by Eliyahu — July 10, 2010 @ 2:16 pm
because her naked partisanship embarassed cnn so much among the general public. And the Hizbullah is notorious for the slaughter of US marines in Beirut in 1983. Of course, huffington post readers are it seems not so well informed.
Embarassd? You gotta be kidding. Marines dead? Nah.
They’re OK with them being accused of caving in to Islam, but caving in to jews, no, no way they’ll expose themselves to that.
There was something going on there, but I DK what.
Comment by incognito — July 10, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
They’re all grovelling and you can guess the reason
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-theyre-all-grovelling-and-you-can-guess-the-reason-2028720.html
Comment by power5000 — July 17, 2010 @ 3:56 am
Good ole Fisk, you can always count on him to pass by a mirror and see others in it.
Of course: it’s grovelling to the jews, not the grovelling of the media to the jihadists. After all, it’s the jews who are scary, no?
Upside down and backwards, as usual.
Comment by incognito — July 17, 2010 @ 11:12 pm
Fisk’s logic escapes me. Maybe he is more aware of moral reality than we give him credit for, although –if I am right– then he is just as dishonest as we always knew him to be.
Note that in his repulsive rant in the Independent, another pro-Nazi British rag, apparently appealing to the middle class, not the working class to be sure [note the distinction, Paul Halsell], Fisk compares Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman to Iran’s Ahmadinejad in order to show how bad a bad guy Lieberman is. But Fisk’s whole piece is devoted to defending the late Fadlallah as really a good guy. Yet Fadlallah and A-jad were buddies, maybe not as close as Frankie and Johnny or Damon and Pythias, but good guys on the same wave length. They were both admirers of Khomeini, haters of Israel, supporters of Hizbollah, friends of the Assad clan of Syria, and so on and so forth. So if A-jad’s deeds and views make him a bad guy worthy of being used as a moral equivalent of foreign minister Lieberman, then why didn’t Fadlallah’s similar deeds and views and loyalties make him a bad guy too?? Can Fisk grasp the logic here? Can the editors and owners of the Independent comprehend that as long as Fisk writes his gutter tirades on their pages, their paper is worth little more than fish wrapping.
Comment by Eliyahu — July 18, 2010 @ 1:59 am