They said her credibility was "compromised." That's one way of putting it. An update on this story. "CNN fires Octavia Nasr for Twitter post praising Hezbollah terrorist, says credibility 'compromised'," by Richard Huff for the New York Daily News, July 7 (thanks to Ron):
Less than 140 characters cost CNN's Octavia Nasr her job after she tweeted her "respect" for a terror-loving Hezbollah sheikh who died over the weekend.
Nasr, CNN's Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs, ran into hot water after she posted on Twitter that she was "sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah... One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot."
Facing an immediate and harsh backlash, she backpedaled Tuesday in a blog post, saying she didn't endorse the life work of Fadlallah - who was labeled a terrorist by US officials.
"Not the kind of life to be commenting about in a brief tweet. It's something I deeply regret," she wrote. Still, she praised Fadlallah for being a pioneer on "woman's rights," and warning Muslim men against abusing their wives.
But where was the threshhold of "abuse" for Fadlallah? Anyway, in light of Fadlallah's other activities, praising him for advocating some level of women's rights is like praising Hitler for his paintings and ignoring all the other stuff.
It was not enough. On Wednesday, CNN fired her.
Parisa Khosravi, senior vice president of CNN International Newsgathering, told the staff that Nasr accepts she shouldn't have made such a "simplistic" comment without context.
Our Uh, Yeah Department issued the following statement:
"Uh, yeah."
"However," Khorsravi wrote in a memo, "at this point, we believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward."
Nasr joined CNN in 1990 and was an on-air and off-air analyst on Mideast affairs for a variety of CNN platforms.
Fadallah had often praised suicide bombings - including one in 2008 that left 8 students dead at an Israeli yeshiva. He was also fiercely anti-American.
No kidding!
Nasr joined CNN in 1990 and was an on-air and off-air analyst on Mideast affairs for a variety of CNN platforms.
So Octavia has had two decades to study the effects of the Ko-Ran, Ha-Deeth, and Seer-Rah on the devolving situation over there.
*** 92:8 ***
Rich Kid Ted and his egregious wife Hanoi Jane must be purty proud of the background and analysis Octavia has turned in over the past twenty years. Very professional.
She's even had the benefit of the bug-like Zareed to do review edits on her copy.
might be interesting to review some of her on-air comments to see how her "respect" may have flavored her "reporting"...
CNN fires Mideast editor who praised Hizballah cleric
...............
Finally, some sanity.
From the brainless Octavia Nasr:
"Not the kind of life to be commenting about in a brief tweet. It's something I deeply regret," she wrote. Still, she praised Fadlallah for being a pioneer on "woman's rights"...
...............
She must mean that Fatwa where Fadlallah ruled it was OK for women to wear nail polish while praying...
Alas and alack, Nasr is not the only mealy-mouthed apologist when it comes to the hideous Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah and his ilk.
Here's the BBC's whitewashing of the Ayatollah's life:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10501084.stm
It includes such gems as these:
"Yet Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who has died aged 74, was also known for his moderate position on women and Islam.
Among his fatwas, or religious edicts, was one that allowed women to wear nail polish during prayers."
But he was also branded a terrorist by the US, and named on a 1995 blacklist.
.....................
Those mean old Americans! More idiocy:
Reputation for piety
Yet in another interview given in 2009, the ayatollah spoke of his disappointment at President Obama's Middle East policy, accusing him of being "under pressure" from Israeli supporters and "not a man who has a plan for peace".
The Americans may have regarded Fadlallah as embroiled in terrorism, but in Lebanon and many parts of the Shia Islamic world he was revered as the most eminent spiritual guide, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut.
.....................
Boy! Those crass Americans sure don't appreciate "spiritual guidance" like the Lebanese do!
What I say?? It must have been a serious SHOCK to her that CNN would respond to ALL the harsh and immediate outrage at her comment AND FIRE her A$$!!
I hope she felt like a BUS BLEW up under her seat or she was being beaten death by islamic terrorists!!
One cockroach down with others swarming to take its place, which is why I see no profit to common sense in this.
By sacking Nasr, CNN have effectively cautioned its staff and associates to keep their terrorist sympathies under wraps.
Good to see CNN isn't totally clueless. Glad they fired this jihadist sympathizer.
Islam has proven itself to be a danger to civilization, their attempt to enforce sharia law on outsiders will backfire. There is no room for superstitious lunatics in a modern world that respects individual freedom. Billions of non- believers have now come out of hiding to howl that there is no god. China can be used as an example of how a nation can prosper socially and morally without any help from an invisible universal mind.
amplify.com and the IBA are reporting that Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is trying to nullify the results of the election and block Geert Wilders' party.
What century do the Dutch live in, anyway? Their QUEEN vetos their elections? People could get tarred and feathered in my neighborhood for that sort of thing 300 years ago.
***Y-E-S!***
Huh? China, prosper socially and morally? That is sooo far off the mark:
http://www.chinasmack.com/2009/pictures/cheng-zhenbo-quizhou-poor-child-life.html
Lorfalcon,
Morris is a troll trying to appear as a kinder, gentler...whatever. He's pro-Muz. he's been copying and pasting comments here and over at Atlas. Not an ally.
It is good to read the exact words that Octavia Nasr used in her preposterous and even comical attempt to explain, and explain away, her expression of such deep admiration for someone who believed in the permanent inferiority of all non-Muslims (and women too, though Octavia Nasr describes him as practically a champion of women's rights), and who was in up to his neck in blood, the blood of American Marines and French soldiers and Israeli civilians:
n Herself
"My tweet was short: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot. #Lebanon"
Reaction to my tweet was immediate, overwhelming and a provides a good lesson on why 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues, especially those dealing with the Middle East.
It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I'm sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah's life's work. That's not the case at all.
Here's what I should have conveyed more fully:
I used the words "respect" and "sad" because to me as a Middle Eastern woman, Fadlallah took a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman's rights. He called for the abolition of the tribal system of "honor killing." He called the practice primitive and non-productive. He warned Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam.
I met Fadlallah in 1990. He was willing to take the risk of meeting with a young Christian journalist from the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. Fadlallah was at the height of his power. As I was ushered in, I was told that he would not look at me in the eye and to make it quick as there was a long line of dignitaries waiting.
The interview went 45 minutes, during which I asked him about Hezbollah's agenda for an Islamic state in Lebanon. He bluntly told me that was his group's dream but there would be room for other religions. He also joked at the end of the interview that the solution for Lebanon's civil war was to send "all political leaders without exception on a ship away from Lebanon with no option to return."
He challenged me to run the entire interview on LBC without editing. We did.
This does not mean I respected him for what else he did or said. Far from it.
It is no secret that Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah hated with a vengeance the United States government and Israel. He regularly praised the terror attacks that killed Israeli citizens. And as recently as 2008, he said the numbers of Jews killed in the Holocaust were wildly inflated.
But it was his commitment to Hezbollah's original mission - resisting Israel's occupation of Lebanon - that made him popular and respected among many Lebanese, not just people of his own sect.
In 1983, as Fadlallah found his voice as a spiritual leader, Islamic Jihad - soon to morph into Hezbollah - bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 299 American and French peacekeepers. I lost family members in that terror attack.
And it was during his time as spiritual leader that so many Westerners were kidnapped and held hostage in Lebanon.
When the Lebanese Civil War ended in 1990 with Syria taking full control of Lebanon, Hezbollah was and remains the only armed militia in Lebanon. Under Syria's influence however, Hezbollah - declared a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union started becoming even more militant, with designs beyond Lebanon's borders to serve agendas for Syria and Iran.
Fadlallah himself was designated a terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department.
In later years, Hezbollah's leadership apparently did not like Fadlallah's vocal criticism of Hezbollah's allegiance to Iran. Nor did they like his assertions that Hezbollah's leaders had been distracted from resistance to Israeli occupation of portions of Lebanon and had turned weapons against their own people.
At first, he was simply pushed to the side, but later wasn't even referred to as a Hezbollah member. Rather, he was referred to as the scholar - the expert on Islam - but nothing more. During the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, his honorary title "Sayyed" - indicating that he's a descendant of the prophet - was dropped any time he was mentioned on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV and other Hezbollah media outlets.
Through his outspoken Friday sermons and his regularly updated website, Fadlallah had a platform to spread what many considered a more moderate voice of Shia Islam than what was coming out of Iran. Immensely popular in Lebanon among the various religious groups, he also had followers across the region including in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and even as far as Morocco in northern Africa.
Sayyed Fadlallah. Revered across borders yet designated a terrorist. Not the kind of life to be commenting about in a brief tweet. It's something I deeply regret."
It should not have taken this long to figure out her deep and dangerous biases. It was obvious from what was omitted, and what was given exaggerated attention, on CNN. And there are so many others like her. We need not have to wait until they make a fatal error of judgment; their coverage of the Middle East is grotesque, and while the most immediate victim is Israel, their refusal to grasp the nature of Islam also prevents us from seeing the full scope of the dangers in Western Europe and, what's more, helps to create an atmosphere in which the most ineffective, and squandering, of policies, are put into place and no matter how obvious the failure, continue because the American public, and that includes those who presume to protect and instruct that public, are so ill-informed.
What would it take to stop the BBC, for example, from continuing to serve as a succursale, in its Middle East coverage, of the Arab League, or perhaps Al Jazeera? Must one wait for that Octavia-Nasr moment? Why, Barbara Plett had such a moment, her public weeping over Yasir Arafat, the planner, plotter, promoter, and profiteer of Arab terorrism who made it into such a successful thing, in making the phony case for the "Palestinians" (really, just the local Arabs who are the shock troops of the Jihad against Israel), that the same terrorist tactics were adopted by Muslims all over the world. But she was only moved, for a while, out of the Middle East, to Afghanistan (or was it Pakistan? I forget). She should have been discahrged, and so too should a great many others still at the BBC.
Outside Bush House, there ought to be a permanent picket line, or at least protestors, night and day, demanding that the BBC stop being a haven for those who are relentlessly pro-Islam, pro-Arab, anti-Israel (and anti-American), for there is now a world-wide war, undeclared and still shaky, of self-defense against the Jihad, and the people of the Western world, or the larger Infidel world, cannot tolerate a BBC in thrall to, in the control of, local Lord Haw-Haws broadcasting not from Radio Berlin, but from Bush Huuse itself, because they are on the staff of the BBC, and hire and promote others just like themselves.
This has to stop. The British government, the British press, has to step in, and not let up for a moment on the BBC. And in this country, those who support NPR should demand that the BBC be dropped, which will cause it to lose revenues, until its personnel have been changed, to reflect a new understanding of reality. The mixture as before will not do.
"Anyway, in light of Fadlallah's other activities, praising him for advocating some level of women's rights is like praising Hitler for his paintings and ignoring all the other stuff."
The only thing Hitler was never praised for was his miserable paintings.
However, in the beginning Hitler was much liked, admired and respected especially by British politicians. Even pundits can completely misjudge political giants. In a historical perspective Octavia Nasr´s tribute to Fadlallah is a minor matter and not a disaster of historical proportions like the misjudgment made by these statesmen:
After visiting Hitler and Goering in 1937 Lord Halifax reported to a friend, that he “liked all the Nazi leaders, even Goebbels, and he was much impressed, interested and amused by the visit.” He thinks the regime absolutely fantastic.
After commending Hitler for having reoccupied the Rhineland to protect his country, Lloyd George received an invitation to – Berchtesgaden. Out of that meeting the ex-prime minister emerged “spellbound by Hitlers´s astonishing personality and manner”. “He is indeed a great man” were Lloyd George´s first words, as he compared Mein Kampf to the Magna Carta and declared Hitler “The Ressurrection and the Way” for Germany.
Nor was Lloyd George alone among British statesmen in being taken with Hitler. Eden had met with Hitler in 1934 and written his wife, “Dare I confess? … I rather liked him.” John Simmons , Edens predecessor as foreign secretary, described Hitler to King George as “An Austrian Joan of Arc with a moustache.”
In 1937, three years after the Night of the Long Knives murders of Roehm and his SA henchmen, two years after the Nuremberg Laws had been imposed on the Jews, one year after Hitler had marched into the Rhineland, Churchill published “Great Contemporaries.” He included in it his 1935 essay “Hitler and His Choice”.
In this profile, Churchill expresses his “admiration for the courage, the perseverance, and the vital force which enabled (Hitler) to challenge, defy, conciliate, or overcome, all the authorities or resistances which barred his path.”
“Those who have met Herr Hitler face to face, “wrote Churchill, “have found a highly competent, cool, well-informed functionary with an agreeable manner, a disarming smile, and few have been unaffected by a subtle personal magnetism.” Hitler and his Nazis had surely shown “their patriotic ardor and love of country.”
None of those statesmen were fired for grossly misjudging and praising one of the greatest monsters of history. ;-)
we believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward."
Did they ever think she had any credibility, except among al-CNN's mahoundian viewers???
The clueless mainstream media are self deceived and deceiving the multitudes. Thank God for these websites. This aviliability of truth over the internet is priceless.
To be fair Hitler was a great artist. I mean, I greatly respect and admire his artistic side not to mention his fearless willing to fight as a soldier in WW 1. He had so many good qualities- restored Germany's economy, expanded it's borders, improved the infrastructure and financed creation of rocket technology.... he was a real giant and I greatly respect him and mourn that he is no longer with us.
Gosh, why does my saying that always bug people so much!
What I find most puzzling about Nasr's "explanation" is her saying she "lost family members" (plural) in the Hezbollah Beirut bombing in 1983. Yet in 1990, a few short years later, she seems to have forgotten all about that and had no problem interviewing Fadlallah, a Hezbollah leader "at the height of his power". She also appears to have a warm memory of that interview.
Whether or not Fadlallah had anything to do with the 1983 bombing (I don't know that he did), I am stunned that Nasr seems to have an indifferent attitude concerning Hezbollah as the executioner of her family members. Hezbollah killed some of her family yet she has fond memories of Hezbollah leadership. If the KKK killed some of my family members I would never forget and never stop fighting against the leadership of the KKK for the rest of my life. But Hezbollah and Fadlallah don't seem to bother Nasr at all. Her "explanation" makes that clear.
Either Nasr is lying about losing those family members, her family meant nothing to her, or...? Drawing a blank here...
There's a key difference in this case - Nasr was familiar with Fadlallah for at least 20 years and as a CNN Middle East Editor knew all about his monstrous actions over a long period of time - yet she still praised him at his death. I would wager that all of the British politicians who were initially taken with Hitler saw soon enough, over a period of five years (say, 1934 through 1939) that Hitler was nothing like he at first seemed. If they had praised him in the end (after Hitler's "accomplishments" were well known) it would be a much better analogy to the present topic.
Hitler is living in Brazil with Elvis - mourn no longer!
I'm pleasantly surprised :)
Happy dance....
1 down....lots more to go.
Bob,
And don't forget that Herr Schickelgruber was also a dog-lover. One of his last acts was to euthanize his Alsatian (named "Blondi," of course) to keep her from the clutches of the Russians. Well, yes, and to verify the efficacy of those cyanide ampules that were all the rage in the chancellery bunker...
Btw, did Jon Stewart take a personal shot at Spencer tonight on Daily Show?
I hated how JS blithley stated that Sharia and Christian law were identical. Spencer needs to put him in his place and let him know what a fool he's acting.
CNN has stood by their reporters in the past for far more egregious bias than this. My guess is that Olivia Nasr had enemies inside CNN, and they had their knives sharpened and ready for the right opportunity to strike. Whoever it was deserves a thank you.
I would also guess that other reporters within CNN and on other networks have taken note of this, and we may see a (short) period of relatively sane reporting. After a decent interval, it will be back to Israel bashing as usual.
"This has to stop. The British government, the British press, has to step in, and not let up for a moment on the BBC. "
And the same for America and NPR and CNN.
Wellington can vouch for this, I believe: During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln had Federal troops physically shut down newspapers who were in one way or another obstructing the war effort.
If only we knew we were at war now, and had a Lincoln at the helm.
Yes!!
It sure looked like it. I was hoping they were going to show those tug-of-war handshakes between Obama and Netanyahu the other day. The old paratrooper had a pretty good grip.
I listened to a BBC 3 programme on Palestine once. It was most strange: it appears that Palestine history begins with the Arabs and Islam. The female presenter said something to this effect that surprised me greatly. Of course she avoided being too specific, but Jewish and Roman and Greek history and influence in the area was unimportant, that much I caught.
I suppose she was well-rehearsed in the islamic version of history: what was before islam does not matter, it was ignorance.
I would like to hear her version of the Reconquista.
"I met Fadlallah in 1990. He was willing to take the risk of meeting with a young Christian journalist from the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. Fadlallah was at the height of his power."
This woman is a CHRISTIAN? Is she mad?
Jewcat
I think she's what Hugh calls an 'Islamochristian'.
I have talked with some and very quickly saw that what makes a Christian Islamochristian is his hatred of Jews. I haven't seen an exception to that rule yet.
Perhaps I should add that these were mostly Christians from the Mid East.
That was not too well expressed.
What I wanted to say is that ALL Islamochristians I met were Jew-haters.
"I would wager that all of the British politicians who were initially taken with Hitler saw soon enough, over a period of five years (say, 1934 through 1939) that Hitler was nothing like he at first seemed."
Soon enough? You will lose that wager!
Historians mark Hitlers´s march into Prague on March 15, 1939 as the crossroads where he started down the path of conquest by imposing German rule on non-Germanistic people.
The "destruction of Czechoslovakia", writes Kissinger, "made no geopolitical sense whatsoever; it showed that Hitler was beyond rational calculation and bent on war."
In February 1939 Neville Chamberlain wrote:
“(THE DICTATORS) HAVE HAD good cause to ask for consideration of their grievances & and if they had asked nicely after I appeared on the scene they might already have got some satisfaction."
As the fall of 1938 slipped into winter, Chamberlain continued to defend his Munich accord. His Christmas cards bore a picture of the plane that had carried him to Munich. But the bloom was off the rose. A poll in October 1938 revealed that 93 percent of the British did not believe that Hitler had made his last territorial demand in Europe.
The pundits and brave journalists were in self-destruct mode and denial just like the MSM today. On December 15, 1938 The Times wrote:
"The war-mongers (Churchill and his supporters), those who would make war against another country without having counted the cost, ought to either be impeached and shot or hanged. ... There has never been a Prime Minister in the history of England who has in nine month achieved such agreements as those Mr. Chamberlain has made with Czechoslovakia, Italy, and with Hitler in Munich."
You conclude:
"If they had praised him in the end (after Hitler's "accomplishments" were well known) it would be a much better analogy to the present topic."
Hitler lost the war and Stalin won it because the French and British suddenly decided they would fight to the death to save semi-fascist Poland. If democratic Czechoslovakia with a large, modern and well equipped army, weapons factories, and its own strong fortifications in the mountains (a small Maginot Line) was not worth fighting for then why fight for Poland? They were both "faraway" countries and there existed no possibility to come to their rescue with military means.
Had Britain and France decided to use realpolitik - like Stalin did - They would have given Hitler a free hand in Poland and urged him to attack USSR to conquer lebensraum in the east. A foreign policy goal Hitler specified in Mein Kampf and had pursued with vigor and determination since he came to power.
Then the two dictators could have decimated each other and Britain have picked up the pieces when they were near exhaustion. Stalin and Hitler could have been hanged together, peace restored, and no Cold War.
The "accomplishments" of Joseph Stalin did not become known to the public until three years after his death i 1953.
In Stalin´s obituary The New York Times quoted Harry S. Truman´s kind words about the mass murderer:
"I got very well acquainted with Joe Stalin, and I like old Joe! He is a decent fellow. But Joe is a prisoner of the Politburo."
History repeats itself it seems. Instead of quoting George Santayana I will quote Albert Einstein:
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
But at least Fadlallah was honest about Islam:
Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual mentor of Hizbullah, was asked by an English-language periodical in 1992 whether he thought fundamentalist or Islamist was more appropriate.
Like Ghannushi and Turabi, Fadlallah rejected fundamentalist because of its "violent" associations. But like Madani, he also found Islamist unacceptable. It was a term "used by outsiders to denote a strand of activity which they think justifies their misconception of Islam as something rigid and immobile, a mere tribal affiliation."
And his conclusion was identical to Madani's: "Having thought a good deal about this matter, I am satisfied to use the word 'Muslim,' which includes all the activities carried on within the scope and fold of Islam."
At least Fadlallah identified the problem correctly. The problem is not fundamentalist Islam and not Islamism, it is quite simply ISLAM!
Boycott CNN, not for hiring a traitor in the first place.
OT
Did anyone see Robert's Foxnews clip appearing on The Daily Show with John Stewart?
JS made fun of his statement, but I think any press is good press.
(JS is wrong of course)
So Nasr stepped over the line at CNN and got fired.....what line? How can CNN hold a straight face considering how many other reporters they have with the same view as Nasr.
One thing is certain, for all the MSM's contempt and dismissal of Fox Cable News, it is Fox that is driving these stories, from Van Jones to Octavia Nasr, generating the public pressure that is resulting in such firings. Lo and behold, we actually have a free, independent, television news network in America, covering real news...which is more than one can say for Europe or Canada.
Watch out Canadians! Your own version of Fox is coming...and it will be a game-changer. You'll actually be getting coverage of stories that don't conform to the liberal/left narrative. My guess is that like Fox, it will get HUGE ratings and begin influencing public debate on the issues of the day.
Kudos to those who did the backlash. Speaking up works.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
and
British ambassador to Lebanon praises late Shi'ite cleric
By JPOST.COM STAFF
..the Brits are contemptable
Britain seeks to bolster ties with Turkey
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
07/08/2010 17:08
...if the Brit whores cannot accuse and berate the JEws they don't care- how many Kurdish villages have the Turks bombed?
"Fadallah had often praised suicide bombings - including one in 2008 that left 8 students dead at an Israeli yeshiva. He was also fiercely anti-American."
A devout mohammedan ...no "moderate" islam for this guy.
apparently she is 99% Arab and maybe 1% Christian. So anything that was done by an Arab supremacist is ok for her.
Yet, by September 1939 (which is still in the year 1939, mind you - I said "through 1939") Chamberlain declared war against Hitler. I haven't lost the wager yet. Chamberlain indeed saw in 1939 that Hitler was nothing like he at first seemed.
However, I get your point. Even the most fortunate citizens on earth don't often (every few years or so) have the opportunity to legally fire (vote out) their politicians regardless of how stupid they are. Another huge difference in your analogy of the topic at hand is that CNN is a business that can probably (depending on the employment agreement) fire it's employees at will. This time it's middle east news editor because she praised a terrorist. Good for them. I wish I could fire Obama at will… sadly we'll have to wait a couple years.
I just saw a bunch of flying pigs go past my window.
This is the first time I can recall CNN expressing any concern for its credibility in this regard. They've been dhimmi all the way.
And in answer to bford, you are correct. But it doesn't have to be that way. That is why we need recall elections in the US.