Posted by Howard Richman on August 25 2007 at 17:19:42:
In Reply to: CNN to air documentary on homeschoolers and other Christian Jihadis posted by Howard Richman on August 23 2007 at 12:45:33:
CAMERA (The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) calls the first segment of Amanpour´s program an "abomination." Here is a selection from their review:
CNN´s "God´s Warriors," hosted by Christiane Amanpour, is a three-part series intended to examine the growing role of religious fundamentalism in today´s world. Unfortunately, the first program in the series, "God´s Jewish Warriors," is one of the most grossly distorted programs to appear on mainstream American television in many years. It is false in its basic premise, established in the opening scene in which Jewish (and Christian) religious fervency is equated with that of Muslims heard endorsing "martyrdom," or suicide-killing. There is, of course, no counterpart among Jews and Christians to the violent jihadist Muslim campaigns underway across the globe, either in numbers of perpetrators engaged or in the magnitude of death and destruction wrought.HowardWhile in reality Jewish "terrorism" is virtually non-existent, the program magnifies at length the few instances of violence or attempted violence by religiously-motivated Jewish individuals - including having to go all the way back to 1980, for example, to explore a bombing campaign by a small group of Israeli Jews on West Bank Arab mayors. By dredging up such an old incident Amanpour unintentionally undermines her own thesis... .
Whether wittingly or not, Amanpour´s program, with its reliance on pejorative labeling, generalities, testimonials, and a stacked lineup of guests, is a perfect illustration of classical propaganda techniques. Unfortunately propaganda is the opposite of journalism, the profession Amanpour is supposed to practice....