"The Public Does Not Have a Right to Know"
Reese Schonfeld, Co-founder of CNN, Says.
From News Hounds:
Last week on May 16th, during an appearance on The Big Story with John Gibson, CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld made some very scary statements about the roles of the media and the Pentagon in time of war. The two men were discussing the Newsweek Koran story. Here's my transcript of part of that interview:
GIBSON: You're saying that editors should, and in fact, do make calculations about whether people are going to live or die because of the revelations they're about to make and that this was one in which editors should have foreseen just what happened.
SCHONFELD: Sure. What, what difference ... Absolutely. Everyone knows or should know, if they know anything about the Arab world or the Muslim world, how holy the bible is - their Koran - is to them and how inflammatory a statement that we had desecrated it, flushed it down the toilet or whatever would be in that world and someone should have said: Well, what real difference does it make if we report that or don't report that. And should never have reported it. But if you were even gonna consider reporting it, well, I don't, I don't even - I wouldn't even consider reporting it. I would have sat there in the chair and said "No, this doesn't go in the story." Period.
GIBSON: OK, but would you have - by that same reasoning would you have not reported Abu Ghraib if somebody had brought you those pictures.
SCHONFELD: Abu Ghraib is the greatest foul up of all time. Those pictures were on the internet. The problem is not that we were - we - I only wish the Pentagon could have been able to deny that story, to be able to li - that's the right of the Pentagon to lie, when it is in the country's best interest to lie, you do lie. And when I made that statement in my book, an undersecretary - well - at Defense told me I don't have it quite right, the - uh - Rumsfeld, the Secretary can never lie but any, anybody under him can, that you have to do it when it's in the public, in the government interest.
gr8fuldaniel: So you see, the problem isnt that abu Ghraib happened................But that it was reported. How can they continue a Nazi agenda if everybody knows about it?
Reese Schonfeld, Co-founder of CNN, Says.
From News Hounds:
Last week on May 16th, during an appearance on The Big Story with John Gibson, CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld made some very scary statements about the roles of the media and the Pentagon in time of war. The two men were discussing the Newsweek Koran story. Here's my transcript of part of that interview:
GIBSON: You're saying that editors should, and in fact, do make calculations about whether people are going to live or die because of the revelations they're about to make and that this was one in which editors should have foreseen just what happened.
SCHONFELD: Sure. What, what difference ... Absolutely. Everyone knows or should know, if they know anything about the Arab world or the Muslim world, how holy the bible is - their Koran - is to them and how inflammatory a statement that we had desecrated it, flushed it down the toilet or whatever would be in that world and someone should have said: Well, what real difference does it make if we report that or don't report that. And should never have reported it. But if you were even gonna consider reporting it, well, I don't, I don't even - I wouldn't even consider reporting it. I would have sat there in the chair and said "No, this doesn't go in the story." Period.
GIBSON: OK, but would you have - by that same reasoning would you have not reported Abu Ghraib if somebody had brought you those pictures.
SCHONFELD: Abu Ghraib is the greatest foul up of all time. Those pictures were on the internet. The problem is not that we were - we - I only wish the Pentagon could have been able to deny that story, to be able to li - that's the right of the Pentagon to lie, when it is in the country's best interest to lie, you do lie. And when I made that statement in my book, an undersecretary - well - at Defense told me I don't have it quite right, the - uh - Rumsfeld, the Secretary can never lie but any, anybody under him can, that you have to do it when it's in the public, in the government interest.
gr8fuldaniel: So you see, the problem isnt that abu Ghraib happened................But that it was reported. How can they continue a Nazi agenda if everybody knows about it?