Media Corps: CNN says terrorists want Kerry
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Dear Media Corps member,
Republicans have long sought to scare voters by claiming the terrorists want a Kerry victory in November. Now CNN's senior political analyst is repeating the same nonsense. On Sunday, CNN's Bill Schneider claimed Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda "would very much like to defeat President Bush" [1]. This sort of baseless fear-mongering is outrageous enough from Republican partisans, but it's entirely unacceptable from a news organization like CNN. Call on CNN to publicly refute such partisan speculation:
Tom Hannon
Lucy Speigel (If you're not a member of the Media Corps, click here to join. As a Media Corps member, you'll receive more alerts like this one in the future.) Schneider's remarks parrot those of Republican hatchet men:
The very idea that our president should be chosen by our enemies is an affront to democracy. Worse, there isn't even any evidence bin Laden or al Qaeda actually prefer Kerry. In March, an Egyptian group claiming links with al Qaeda actually declared support for Bush's re-election, saying it would be impossible to find a leader "more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom" [4]. This is not the first time CNN has allowed such a remark. In May, correspondent Kelli Arena made a similar assertion: "[T]here is some speculation that al Qaeda believes it has a better chance of winning in Iraq if John Kerry is in the White House" [5]. Arena offered no source for the claim, which clearly comes from Bush surrogates (she also mistakenly attributed attacks in Iraq to al Qaeda). Unsourced comments with such great political weight are out of bounds for serious journalists. Schneider and Arena are carrying water for Republican partisans when they repeat damaging claims about al Qaeda's presidential preference without citing any evidence. Call on CNN to visibly refute these unacceptable comments with the facts and to prohibit partisan speculation on whom al Qaeda wants to win the election:
Tom Hannon
Lucy Speigel Thank you for demanding facts from the media.
Sincerely,
Sources:
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