{"id":51581,"date":"2012-02-29T15:49:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T13:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=51581"},"modified":"2023-04-14T14:00:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T11:00:09","slug":"cnn-silences-war-skeptical-soldier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2012\/02\/29\/cnn-silences-war-skeptical-soldier\/","title":{"rendered":"CNN Silences War-Skeptical Soldier"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exclusive:<\/strong>\u00a0By obsessing over Iran gaining a nuclear weapon \u201ccapability\u201d \u2013 even with no actual bomb \u2013 while ignoring Israel\u2019s undeclared nuclear arsenal, the U.S. news media proves the point of its own bias. There\u2019s also the usual hostility toward dissenting voices, as ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern notes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Ray McGovern<\/strong><\/p>\n

When CNN interviews a U.S. Army corporal preparing for his third deployment to Afghanistan, should TV viewers be permitted to hear him out on a front-burner issue like Iran\u2019s alleged threat to Israel? For those who might think so, watch what happens when 28-year-old Cpl. Jesse Thorsen touches a neuralgic nerve by suggesting that Israel can take care of itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to say exactly what happened to the remote feed that suddenly got lost in transmission back to CNN Central, but the minute-long video is truly worth a thousand words:<\/p>\n

The interview, which dates back to Jan. 3 when the Iowa caucuses were the evening\u2019s big news, is at least symbolic of how our Fawning Corporate Media treats dissident voices that clash with the prevailing pro-war-on-Iran bias. I missed the segment when it aired, but I think it still merits comment today as war clouds thicken, again.<\/p>\n

In the aborted one-minute segment, Cpl. Thorsen is interviewed by CNN\u2019s Dana Bash, who presumably picked him out for the live interview because he had a large tattoo on his neck about never forgetting 9\/11. The tattoo \u2013 plus two tours in Afghanistan behind him (and yet another in front of him) \u2013 may have suggested to Bash and her CNN producers that Thorsen was unlikely to say anything to muddle or muffle the new drumbeat for war.<\/p>\n

Based on Thorsen\u2019s military appearance alone, the typical CNN viewer could almost settle back in an easy chair and anticipate some stirring patriotic bathos about America standing tall \u2013 and the interview ending with the obligatory \u201cthank you for your service,\u201d which any right-thinking journalist utters to show that he or she is part of Team America.<\/p>\n

But Bash got more than she bargained for when Thorsen turned out to be a well-informed and articulate young man who began endorsing Ron Paul\u2019s non-interventionist views on U.S. foreign policy, i.e. that the United States should go to war only when absolutely necessary to defend its vital national interests and shouldn\u2019t be picking a fight with Iran on behalf of Israel.<\/p>\n

Such comments, of course, are almost literally heretical at places like CNN, which accepts unquestioningly the idea of \u201cAmerican exceptionalism\u201d and abides by the neoconservative dogma that U.S. and Israeli security interests are one and the same.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why CNN and the rest of the FCM typically dismiss Ron Paul\u2019s views on foreign policy as dangerously \u201cisolationist,\u201d if not laughably loony. \u201cCan you believe it? He doesn\u2019t want to station American troops all around the world! He doesn\u2019t believe in preemptive wars to disarm our enemies of weapons that they may not have now but might someday in the future have the capability of building! Ha! Ha! What a nut!\u201d<\/p>\n

The FCM\u2019s dismissal of Paul\u2019s foreign-policy views was a key reason why comedian Jon Stewart once compared Paul to \u201cthe 13th<\/sup>\u00a0floor\u201d of a hotel, the level that often doesn\u2019t exist because customers consider the number unlucky. So, when the FCM would lavish attention on other Republican candidates, who finished both above and below Paul in some poll or in early balloting, the pundits would pass over Paul as if he didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

Going \u2018Off-Script\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, what happened when Cpl. Thorsen veered \u201coff script\u201d \u2013 so to speak \u2013 and began reprising Ron Paulish views on the appropriate use of soldiers like himself? Well, CNN suddenly lost the feed. As Thorsen disappeared from the screen, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer explained, \u201cSorry, we just lost our tech connection, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that connections can be\u00a0lost for any number of reasons \u2013 and I can\u2019t say for sure that some alert CNN producer hit the \u201ckill\u201d switch as one might if Cpl. Thorsen had begun cursing uncontrollably \u2013 but Blitzer and other CNN honchos didn\u2019t seem very eager to resume the interview, just as they generally don\u2019t book anti-war activists who disagree with the imperial orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

You might remember, for instance, how CNN, like the other networks, stocked its pre-Iraq War \u201cdebates\u201d with hawkish retired generals and admirals who would face only the mildest and most respectful questioning from Blitzer or some other anchor. In the rare moment when some war skeptic got on the air, he or she was treated with disdain, if not outright hostility, all the better for the network to demonstrate its \u201cpatriotism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some cable networks devoted more time to American restaurants that were renaming French fries into \u201cFreedom fries\u201d than to the millions of people who took to the streets to protest the looming invasion of Iraq. After all, what could those \u201cactivists\u201d know about Iraq hiding all those stockpiles of WMDs?<\/p>\n

But why mention the case of Cpl. Thorsen now? Because this one-minute video-that-is-better-than-a-thousand-words could come in handy as at least a symbolic reminder of the bias at CNN and other parts of the FCM when it comes to allowing a full and fair discussion about going to war against some \u201cdesignated enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This reality is bound to assume increased importance next week when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touches down in Washington to press his case for a preemptive war against Iran\u2019s nuclear program \u2013 which has yet to produce a single nuclear bomb (and Iranian leaders say they don\u2019t intend to build one) \u2013 while Israel has an undeclared nuclear arsenal of an estimated 200 to 300 bombs.<\/p>\n

Just for fun, keep track of how many times Netanyahu and other war advocates get to weigh in on the unacceptable danger of an Iranian nuclear weapon \u201ccapability\u201d compared to how many times they are asked why Israel has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and why it won\u2019t let inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency into Israeli secret bases to examine Israel\u2019s actual nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

The FCM\u2019s latest drumming for war is likely to reach a crescendo during the first days of March, with\u00a0Netanyahu crashing the cymbals loudly and the propaganda orchestra swelling in a martial symphony designed to stir the American people into another standing ovation for another preemptive war.<\/p>\n

Ray McGovern works for Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Savior in inner-city Washington. He spent a total of 30 years as an Army Infantry\/Intelligence officer and CIA analyst<\/em>, and is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).<\/strong><\/p>\n

consortiumnews.com,\u00a0February 27, 2012<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exclusive:\u00a0By obsessing over Iran gaining a nuclear weapon \u201ccapability\u201d \u2013 even with no actual bomb \u2013 while ignoring Israel\u2019s undeclared nuclear arsenal, the U.S. news media proves the point of its own bias. There\u2019s also the usual hostility toward dissenting voices, as ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern notes. By Ray McGovern When CNN interviews a U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":51582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,148,34],"tags":[2466,2728],"class_list":["post-51581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_","category-israel","category-usa","tag-cnn","tag-ron-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}