CNN'S RANK SLANDER:AN APOLOGY IS NOT ENOUGH
I n our editorial the day after CNN and Time claimed
that American special forces used nerve gas in a Vietnam-era
mission to assassinate U.S. defectors, we said that if the story
turned out to be a mixture of errors and lies, the Time Warner
Twins would owe the Mother of All Apologies.
They have apologized. But Mother isn't quite satisfied yet.
Tom Johnson, CNN's CEO, issued a statement saying that "the
facts simply do not support the allegations." A report for
CNN by First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams goes much further
and paints a picture of grossly selective quotation of witnesses
and a deliberate decision to ignore the facts. CNN was so convinced
of American evil that it simply discounted evidence to the contrary.
This means that Johnson's blather in his apology about the
failure of "internal procedures" at CNN is pure hogwash.
The problem at CNN and Time was not one of checks and balances
or journalistic slip-ups. It's a case of rank anti-American slander
masquerading as "investigative journalism."
Running such a doubly untrue story was an unconscionable disservice
to men who endured unbelievable hardships for their country.
The 16 American members of the Tailwind team, all of whom were
wounded during the mission, were accused of two war crimes. First,
of using sarin, the poison gas; second, of doing so in an effort
to kill American war defectors.
These 16 men were astonishingly brave. While the current president
dodged the draft, they served their country. While Peter Arnett,
the correspondent on the story, clinked glasses with Saddam Hussein
and became world-famous spouting Iraqi propaganda during the
Gulf War, those who survived the mission led quiet lives. Arnett
and his fellow hoaxer, producer April Oliver, plucked them from
obscurity to blacken their names.
It is all very well for Time magazine's editor, Walter Isaacson,
to say that his magazine has "learned a lesson." But
integrity is not a quality major newsmagazines and TV networks
should learn at the cost of other people's reputations.
And then there is the not-insignificant fact that this egregious
story has been retold all around the world, grievously damaging
American efforts to limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
If CNN, a news organization which has long claimed to be above
cheap sensationalism, has any integrity left - and that's doubtful
- then heads will really, really roll. And not just the heads
of April Oliver and some unknown producers either - but Arnett's
head, and Tom Johnson's, and CNN president Rick Kaplan's. If
these three men survive, then the apology offered by the network
will be merely a face-saving fraud.
Let the libel and slander litigation begin!
