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Cnn Star Says Us Media Were Intimidated

Juan Cole 09/18/2003

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CNN Star says US Media were Intimidated by Bush

Christiane Amanpour said in an interview on CNBC that the US media had been intimidated into self-censorship in its coverage of the Iraq war. “I think the press was muzzled and I think the press self-muzzled.” I think she is being too kind. The US press were virtually cheerleaders for the war, and interviewers were mean to anyone not wholeheartedly for it. Aaron Brown of CNN made a big deal of marginalizing former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, who said that 95% of Iraqi WMD had been destroyed, over a minor criminal charge that had been dropped. He actually told Ritter he was “poison” until Ritter should publicly clear up the matter. Ritter had been wrong, of course; Iraq had destroyed more than 95% of its WMD. But conveniently, he wasn’t around to participate in the debate after Sept. of 2002. And, a lot of us suspect that Phil Donohue was cancelled by MSNBC because General Electric and Microsoft did not want a peacenik to be their public face during the war. Amanpour had her wrist slapped by CNN for admitting even part of the truth.

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Distinguished University Professor in the History Department at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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