CNN on defensive over snuff film

Tim Graham:

Feeling the heat from critics in Washington and across the country over airing video handed to it by an Iraqi terrorist group called the Islamic Army of God, CNN offered air time to Congressman Duncan Hunter on Monday’s 5pm edition of "The Situation Room." Wolf Blitzer interviewed Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and CNN military analyst Gen. David Grange, but if the general was brought in to debate Hunter, it backfired. Grange ended up agreeing with Hunter that the U.S. media helps the insurgents: "they are winning the information warfare front. You can argue that our -- our -- the media in the United States supports that somewhat." Blitzer framed CNN’s Sniper Theatre by asking Hunter "Do the American people have a right to know what war is like?" Hunter said "Wolf, the American people aren't made out of cotton candy. They understand, when you see 2,791 battlefield deaths, that people are killed, and they are killed in bad ways."

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... Hunter was blunt that CNN saw the war just as a game to score profits for itself: "CNN is a world observer and they're watching what they view to be a football game between one side and another side. They don't see the insurgents as the enemy. They don't see our soldiers as our friends. They see this as a -- as something to be covered, to sell commercials."

In other words, the United States is trying to beat the terrorists in Iraq, while CNN is trying to beat Greta van Susteren in the overnight ratings.

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... "I think the question I asked when I saw this, Wolf, is, does CNN want America to win this thing? And, if I was a platoon leader there, as I once was, and I had a -- and I had a news organization which had shown, had -- had taken film from the enemy, showing them killing one of my soldiers, and they asked if they could be embedded in my platoon, my answer would be no.

"I go back to the -- to the -- the days of guys like Joe Rosenthal, who filmed the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, and Ernie Pyle, who was a soldier's reporter, the guys who were on our side -- even though they reported the rough and the tough of the war, they were on our side. You can't be on both sides. And I would say, if I was that platoon leader, I would say, absolutely not. Take CNN out of there. You can't be on both sides.

Blitzer concluded: "I will give you a -- just a quick second to wrap it up, General Grange."

Grange agreed with Hunter: "Well, as a platoon leader in Vietnam, I would have said the same thing. I agree with you on that -- or even in Iraq today. My -- my concern is the power of information warfare, and how they use it. And I -- and I look at opportunities that we can turn around on the enemy, because they are winning the information warfare front. You can argue that our -- our -- the media in the United States supports that somewhat."

Graham has much more of the back and forth in the interview. It is interesting that General Grange winds up on the same side as Hunter. When you get right down to it, the story was of no news value other than as propaganda for the enemy. It attempted to make killing American's look easy, as a recruiting tool for the enemy. In fact, attempting the killing of Americans is extremely dangerous in Iraq and that is why the enemy avoids contact witht he SU forces when ever possible. But, if the video had shown the sniper being killed in response to the attack, it would not have had its intended benefit as a propaganda film.