September 30, 2012

from WashingtonsBlog Website
 

 

 

Painting by Anthony Freda

 

 

 

 

American “News” Networks

...Run Infomericals for Foreign Dictators… Pretend It’s Actual Reporting

 

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that the American media act as presstitutes for rich and powerful Americans. But it turns out that the American media will turn “tricks” for foreign johns as well…

 

Specifically, three time Emmy award winning reporter Amber Lyon was until very recently a respected CNN reporter:

 

 

 

 

Lyon was fired from CNN after she refused to stop reporting on her first-hand experience of the systematic torture and murder of peaceful protesters by the government of Bahrain.

 

Lyon’s special report on Bahrain was scheduled to run on both CNN’s U.S. and international networks, but was pulled after only a limited showing due to pressure from the Bahrainis and their lobbyists:

 

 

 

CNN

Amber Lyon Report On Bahrain

22-04-2011

 

 

 

 

At the same time that Lyon was risking her life to do on-the-ground reporting in Bahrain, another CNN journalist was filming a paid propaganda piece on how the Bahraini leaders are a bunch of friendly pro-democracy reformers.

 

That’s right… the Bahraini government paid CNN to do what was literally an infomercial for that brutal regime and pretend it was real journalism.

 

Lyon says that China and many other foreign, authoritarian regimes also pay CNN and other mainstream networks to run flattering propaganda pieces.

 

 

 

 

-   Exclusive   -

CNN Exposed! - Caught Producing "State Sponsored News" in Bahrain
by TheAlexJonesChannel
September 29, 2012

from YouTube Website
 

 

 

The Amber Lyon story is just the latest in a series of articles that expose the total Joseph Goebbels like censorship rampant in mainstream media today.

 

The first one I posted several weeks ago exposed how the NY Times basically just regurgitates whatever government officials tell them, while the other showcased how an NPR reporter covering D.C. had to leave and do her own thing out of frustration.

 

This is precisely why alternative media sites are taking off. They provide the only outlets left for genuine journalism. http://www.amberlyonlive.com/

So back to Amber. Back in March 2011, CNN sent a four person team to Bahrain to cover the Arab Spring.

 

Once there, the crew was the subject of extreme intimidation amongst other things, but they were able to record some fantastic footage.

 

As Glenn Greenwald of the UK's Guardian writes in his blockbuster article from today:

"In the segment, Lyon interviewed activists as they explicitly described their torture at the hands of government forces, while family members recounted their relatives' abrupt disappearances. She spoke with government officials justifying the imprisonment of activists.

 

And the segment featured harrowing video footage of regime forces shooting unarmed demonstrators, along with the mass arrests of peaceful protesters.

 

In sum, the early 2011 CNN segment on Bahrain presented one of the starkest reports to date of the brutal repression embraced by the US-backed regime.

Despite these accolades, and despite the dangers their own journalists and their sources endured to produce it, CNN International (CNNi) never broadcast the documentary.

 

Even in the face of numerous inquiries and complaints from their own employees inside CNN, it continued to refuse to broadcast the program or even provide any explanation for the decision.

 

To date, this documentary has never aired on CNNi.

Having just returned from Bahrain, Lyon says she "saw first-hand that these regime claims were lies, and I couldn't believe CNN was making me put what I knew to be government lies into my reporting."

 

 

 

We are grateful for Ms. Lyon’s exposé of this revolting practice… especially because real reporting is treated as terrorism by the American government.