CNN’s bad news
posted at 12:48 pm on June 8, 2007 by Bryan
While everyone’s focused on whether Paris Hilton is going to make a break for the airport in a white Bronco, there’s real news going on out there. For instance, it turns out that CNN routinely pays for access to newsmakers. So says a former former CNN correspondent.
For months, Jeff Koinange had been dogged by allegations that in February, he paid off gunmen to put on a show for a story about Nigerian resistance.
The accusations from Nigerian government officials were so strong that CNN gave a denial during a February broadcast.
“CNN did not pay for or stage any part of the report,” anchor John Roberts said. “CNN does not pay for interviews.”
But a Swiss author – in an e-mail to Koinange’s boss, CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton – details a months-long romance with Koinange, and quotes the correspondent as saying he traded cash for the story.
“Of course I had to pay certain people to get the story,” Koinange says, according to the e-mail.
“But everything was done in agreement with CNN and in accordance with their usual standards. But you do not get such a story without bribing . . . You have to have financial resources. But at the end, it was worth it. CNN has its story and I have my ‘fame.’ “
Look at that last paragraph again. “…everything was done in agreement with CNN and in accordance with their usual standards.”
Is that how things work at CNN? They cover for bloody dictators. They make up stories to smear the US military. And they bribe people to get stories.
Maybe CNN should change its name to the Corrupt News Network.
Blowback
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Totally unrelated to anything being discussed but I found this in my travels around the web today. Remember the Governor of Kansas moaning and groaning about the lack of National Guard assets available to her in the wake of the tornado that devasted an entire city. Well surprise, surprise. Her National Guard has a unique, one of its kind medical facility that, yup you guessed it, has been put in place in Greensburg.
LakeRuins on June 8, 2007 at 1:01 PM
A bad apple falling from a tree of bad apples.
yo on June 8, 2007 at 1:09 PM
The real “Faux News” is CNN.
georgej on June 8, 2007 at 1:10 PM
But they have Lou Dobbs
tomas on June 8, 2007 at 1:19 PM
After Eason Jordan’s admission about Saddam & Iraq I don’t see how this is a suprise.
KelliD on June 8, 2007 at 1:20 PM
It’s a business model that seems to have worked for the National Enquirer…. don’t knock it.
rw on June 8, 2007 at 1:23 PM
I’ve referred to them as the “Communist New Network” for quite some time now…. this is CNN.
Maxx on June 8, 2007 at 1:46 PM
Sometimes news needs a little push.
natesnake on June 8, 2007 at 1:49 PM
Perhaps, but you don’t see CNN at the checkout counter.
Kini on June 8, 2007 at 1:49 PM
Your right but, at the National Enquirer you also get the fun stuff. Like the pictures of the two headed babies and all of the details on Elvis’ flying saucer.
Maxx on June 8, 2007 at 1:52 PM
The best part of CNN is the fact that our enemies believe them. Saddam was probably watching CNN when he sent Baghdad Bob out there to make his famous “The Americans are dying on the walls of Baghdad” while the tanks rumbled by in the background.
LakeRuins on June 8, 2007 at 1:53 PM
Yup. If they’ll suppress what they see so as to maintain “access” (to more stuff that they’ll suppress?), how small a step is it to buying news?
No surprise at all, other than the CNN writer’s guide failing to warn reporters not to divulge such details.
Freelancer on June 8, 2007 at 1:53 PM
It’s like Bruce All Mighty, but instead of using God to make news, they used cash.
natesnake on June 8, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Gosh, what a shocka!
There’s no doubt in my mind that CNN isn’t the only news source condoning and assisting paying various people and factions to stage “news”. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that each and every major network vying for King-of-the-Hill does it to some degree, and has done so for many years.
I don’t trust any of them to give me the news straight up 100% of the time. I basically go with my gut instincts on who to trust, and what stories to trust. Getting the news is like getting UFO reports. Some are definitely fake, some are quite possibly true because they haven’t been disproved, and some are just mentally defunct.
SilverStar830 on June 8, 2007 at 2:33 PM
Ah yes, “responsible journalism”.
CP on June 8, 2007 at 2:49 PM
You have CNN giving out press passes to known nutroots, whose sole goal is to get arrested (for trespassing multiple times) so they can declare the US a Fascist state.
Tim Burton on June 8, 2007 at 3:28 PM
IMHO exposing the already corrupt elements of media is a nessesary evil but the fostering and nurturing of inspired information gathering can produce a more united stance in the troubled times we face.
sonnyspats1 on June 8, 2007 at 6:39 PM
CNN: the most busted name in news.
laelaps on June 8, 2007 at 6:52 PM
I don’t know about what’s in this thread, but based on what can they call themselves the “world’s new leader”?
urbancenturion on June 8, 2007 at 9:44 PM
When do we start to hold people accountable for actual treason?
urbancenturion on June 8, 2007 at 9:45 PM
What’s actually reported is bad enough that it’s counter-productive to announce it as something even worse. Most anyone can see the difference between “Koinange said X” and “A seemingly vindictive and publicity-seeking ex-lover said Koinange said X.”
Kralizec on June 8, 2007 at 10:03 PM
1st RULE: You do not talk about NEWS CLUB.
2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about NEWS CLUB.
Purple Avenger on June 9, 2007 at 5:42 AM
Even the checkout counter has standards.
EEprom on June 9, 2007 at 4:30 PM
That’s how it is though… if you want access, you have to slant the story to the source’s side, and oftentimes you have to pay them too… just like when you’re writing a book about someone, you have to pay them a fee or royalties.
It shouldn’t be news to anyone.
AlexB on June 10, 2007 at 2:26 AM
Oh no the sky is falling and CNN is evil the “Liberal Main Stream Media”.
First Australian born, not American, Rupert Murdoch, who came here via the UK, owns Fox news and the NY Post, and he is a propagandist. Do you really believe this means anything? Really. I love it. The right Wing Media starts feeding itself with BS.
NY POST! Is that where you are getting you info now? Wow they had a three headed alien baby on the cover last week.
Well I happen to know Bush will only go on FOX NEWS!! OH MY GOSH! So what.
Also Fox news emails and memos where found that showed that on air people where told to drop specific talking points from the white house, like “slow bleed”, into their brilliant propaganda.
THIS IS PURE BS. This means nothing. CNN is pretty straight forward. No news is completely with out some slant. However I am so tired of you big babies whining and crying and sniffling like a bunch of little girls about the MEDIA. Yea Iraq failed because of what? The Main Stream Media of course.
I don’t watch much CNN but Glenn Beck has a show and he is conservative. Lou Dobbs, Larry King, Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper are all radical left wingers? I don’t know but I doubt it.
This right wing mantra about the MSM is so tired and old. This is part of Murdoch’s systematic attack on the competition. Make good business sense. The GOP and right wing media want to suppress negative news about them, the republicans. That makes sense. The MSM is not in the pocket of the white house (either party) and it is the natural enemy of Fox news.
The motive to sensationalize these stories is clear. Like all the whining about how the MSM did not hype or sensationalize the JFK pipe idiots enough. The head line “Republicans save the day again, like only republicans can; Thank God for George W Bush.” To hear the Bush appointed US attorney it was going to be worse than 9/11! Aha yes fear mongering.
New York Post is a RIGHT wing rag owned by Rupert Murdoch. When the Iraq study group came out with the bi-partisan report recommending a slow reduction in troops and withdraw, the NY Post called them “Surrender Monkeys”. Nice.
With such mass amounts of brown stinky stuff coming for the white house I can see why republicans would want to distract and discredit the media any way they possible.
Bush is jealous of Hugo Chavez, because Hugo can just shut down TV networks he does not like. Putin in Russia just goes out and poisons people who speak out with radioactive isotopes. I bet Rove and Cheney have thought of it, probably while watching an episode of 24 and pretending they’re Agent Jack Bauer. That is scary, and they did say its their favorite show. Cheney has all TV’s tuned to Fox news only! Bottom line watch what you want but SHUT UP ABOUT THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA. There are 8 to 10 news channels on basic cable, plus countless web pages and conservative talk radio. If you don’t like CNN change the channel.
gmcjetpilot on June 10, 2007 at 2:57 AM