CNN Response to Censorship Allegations Misleading

By Amber Lyon

Former CNN correspondent turned whistleblower, Amber Lyon, analyzes CNN’s response to a series of stories that ran in the Guardian that expose how the network is earning money from oppressive regimes in exchange for creating and airing content that casts a favorable light on the regimes.  The stories also revealed CNN International refused to air CNN’s own award-winning documentary, ‘iRevolution’, a documentary exposing the Bahrain regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

CNN uses multiple misleading and distracting public relations tactics in its response to Glenn Greenwald’s Guardian investigation, a response that fails to provide viewers with answers to the investigation’s central, most damning revelations.  

Instead of watchdogging governments around the world, CNN International is earning money from them, producing what might as well be called ‘infomercials-for-dictators’, sponsored shows and content that cast a positive light on some of the world’s most oppressive regimes.

With vague disclosures, the news organization is defrauding unsuspecting viewers and its own journalists who often risk their lives to expose those same oppressive regimes.  

The  ‘Most Trusted Name in News’ must ultimately decide whether it’s in the business of government propaganda or journalism, because despite the network’s claims of objectivity, I learned firsthand CNN is having trouble biting the hand that feeds it.  

I’ll take this time to remind network executives:

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed.  Everything else is public relations."

                                                                                -George Orwell

Greenwald’s investigations:

Part 1: Why Didn't CNNi Air its Own 'iRevolution' Documentary?

Part 2: CNN and the Business of State-Sponsored TV News

CNN Response:

CNN International's Response to the Guardian  

CNN INTERNATIONAL’S RESPONSE TO THE GUARDIAN

CNN:

“UPDATE: Here is CNN International's response to Glenn Greenwald's story in the Guardian about Amber Lyon's documentary, iRevolution: Online Warriors of the Arab Spring.

CNN International has carried advertising and sponsored content since the 1990s. The critical issue is that our editorial operations and our commercial operations are completely separate. No deal ever buys any editorial influence.

Alongside many other international news outlets, CNN International has carried a very small amount of advertising from the Bahrain Economic Development Board.

Before, during and after the production timeframe and airing of this specific documentary our editorial coverage of Bahrain has been plentiful, thorough, unbiased and frequently critical, as our previous response below underlines and any search on CNN.com will attest.

CNNI's previous response after the jump.

1.  False:  CNN International did not air "its own documentary".

The Truth:  It was never intended to air on CNN International.  It was an hour-long program about the impact of social media on the Arab Spring that was commissioned for CNN US, where it ran in June of 2011.  The portion of it that concerned Bahrain lasted about 13 minutes.

Despite Greenwald’s speculation about the editorial choices that are made when operating multiple networks with different audience profiles, there is nothing unusual about this programming decision. “

LYON’S  RESPONSE:

I was approached by numerous CNN employees, some employed by the network for decades, who told me this programming decision was suspiciously unusual. I’ve produced numerous pieces for CNN US that did not run on CNN International, but this was different. Other factors were at play here- Bahrain was a paying customer.  

One long time executive wrote me to say:

"Why would CNNi not run a documentary on the Arab Spring, arguably the the biggest story of the decade? Strange, no?"

Combine this with all the red tape I had to cut through to get regular, day-of Bahrain stories on-air, and I launched my investigation.

CNN:

 “2.  False:  CNN International ensured Amber's reporting "was never seen on television by Bahrainis or anyone else in the region."

The Truth:  Amber’s reporting from Bahrain was actually featured and promoted on CNN International.  This happened months before the full documentary aired on CNN US.   While not exhaustive, here are examples when her work was featured:

1. April 11, 2011.  Amber’s Bahrain reporting was featured four different times across the day on CNN International .  This included a 14 minute segment that aired in European prime time where a lengthy portion of her reporting (which became part of the documentary) was shown and Amber was interviewed for nine minutes over two segments of the show.

1. April 12/overnight April 13, 2011.  Amber’s reporting is again featured four different times.  Again, during European prime time, there is a 17 minute segment with Amber highlighting her Bahrain reporting.   A five minute segment of her Bahrain report is shown and she is interviewed and takes questions from Facebook and Twitter.

1. April 15, 16, 17 and 18.  An entire half hour program called "Best of Backstory" is dedicated to Amber's reporting from Bahrain.  It runs five times, including a run in European prime time on April 16, 2011.

1. Amber was thrilled with CNN International's showcasing of her work.  She said on the air:  “I was surprised. I didn't know that that many people would look at the story so positively or really thank CNN for it. I think they created a thank you Amber Lyons CNN Facebook page and I got tons of tweets and the response has really been phenomenal.”

1. All told, CNN International featured Amber’s reporting from Bahrain at least 16 times in this one week period and it received almost 3 and a half hours of airtime.

1. At the core of Greenwald's accusations, he casually uses references to the entire iRevolution documentary as interchangeable with Amber Lyon's reporting from Bahrain.  This is sloppy and misleading.  Only a portion of the documentary covered Amber's experiences in Bahrain, and that reporting was heavily featured on CNN International.  The other segments concerned Tunisia and Egypt.  Had Greenwald been clearer about this distinction, the underlying (and false) premise of his article would have fallen apart.”

LYON’S  RESPONSE:

Click here to read Amber Lyon's response and more