Thursday 8 July 2010

ADL Letter to CNN

Update: On July 7, 2010 CNN announced that Octavia Nasr had been dismissed in response to her tweet praising a Hezbollah terrorist. The network also issued a statement recognizing that Nasr's tweet was an "error in judgment." ADL welcomed Nasr's dismissal and commended CNN for taking this matter seriously and dealing with it immediately.



Will King
Senior Director,
International News Operations
CNN

July 6, 2010

Dear Mr. King:

We write to you today about an issue of which we are sure you have heard and that is generating great criticism against CNN. Your Mideast Editor, Octavia Nasr, tweeted about the death of Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, Hezbollah's spiritual advisor, saying, "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah... One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot."

Fadlallah, designated by the U.S. Department of Treasury as a specially designated terrorist, disseminated numerous fatawa' supporting terrorist operations and was a vocal supporter of terrorism against Israeli targets.

It is clearly an impropriety for a CNN journalist/editor to express such a partisan viewpoint as Ms. Nasr did in her tweet.

We trust that CNN will deal with this matter and take steps to insure that its journalists and editors understand that making known their personal views by tweeting or other methods is out of bounds.



Sincerely,

The Anti-Defamation League





1 comment:

Redrum said...

More Scat than our Man Crothers!