US Major General William Caldwell

CNN transcribing again, not reporting on US military press conferences

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CNN.com's US military reporting is once again (recall their pre-Iraq war reporting) looking like summaries of Pentagon press releases. On Wednesday (April 11, 2007), the US military's claim that Iran is supplying weapons to insurgents in Iraq has been reproduced in CNN.com's top story "Iraqi insurgents being trained in Iran, U.S. says." No alternative or critical viewpoints were presented.

In the story's first fifteen paragraphs, CNN paraphrases military spokesman US Major General William Caldwell on nine different occasions, quoting him on eight others. Nowhere in these initial paragraphs, nor anywhere else in the Iranian weaponry section, are competing viewpoints presented.

CNN.com's only hint at challenging official claims came in the very brief fourteenth paragraph, where CNN described the military's new claim that Iran was arming Sunni insurgents as "an unusual development". (See the cnnX editorial section below for why CNN may describe this claim as unusual).

Besides neglecting critical viewpoints, significant background information on this story was left out. In February 2007, CNN reported that an unnamed US military official said that the Iranian leadership was overseeing the transfer of weaponry from Iran to Iraq. But two days later, Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace cast doubt on this claim, saying "we don't know" if the Iranian leadership is involved.

The controversy and official back-tracking is relevant, but CNN did not mention it. And rather than report responsibly, CNN chose to simply summarize the military's new spin, without, apparently, any critical thinking or questioning.


cnnX editorial: the Saudi Arabian twist

Saudi Arabia has gone on record threatening to (and is now very likely) arming Sunni insurgents in Iraq (as opposed to the Shiite insurgents Iran is allegedly arming). And a large majority of US deaths in Iraq are from Sunni insurgent groups, not Shiite.

So the greater threat to the US military and the Shia-led democracy in Iraq is Saudi Arabia, not Iran. The Shiite leadership in Iran wants nothing more than for the Iran-friendly
leaders in Iraq to stay in power. Saudi Arabia's Sunni monarchy, on the other hand, are reportedly getting increasingly uncomfortable with the growing Shia influence in the region.

Certainly Iran has an interest in Iraq and is concerned with the war's outcome, but any attempt to compromise the present Shia-dominated power structure would be counter-productive to its own security and interests.

So blaming Iran for the present chaos in Iraq is not based on the facts on the ground or a reasoned consideration of geopolitical strategy. Instead, it is likely part of an eerily familiar campaign to get Congress and the American public to support an attack on a Middle Eastern country, once again, based on false pretenses.

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