CNN found using fake footage

ppillai at sprint.ca ppillai at sprint.ca
Fri Sep 14 15:34:08 PDT 2001


Carrol wrote:


> Look -- if this is true, it will make good agitational material. But I
> do wish posters would quit reporting it in the form of A says somewhere
> that B may have said that C has revealed, I guess, that..... You are
> making leftists look sloppy.
>
> Carrol

and also

"Dennis" <dperrin13 at mediaone.net> wrote:


> For once I agree with Carrol. It looks as though we're grasping at anything
> to justify our opposition to what we know is coming. But, if it is true, it
> will be damning, at least in the short run. My pals at FAIR should
> investigate. Seth, are you reading this?
>
> DP
>

Look, when i posted this immeaditely after reading it in that Counterpunch story I was uanaware of the already existing thread on this list starting with the indymedia post. Personally I wouldnt have particularly trusted an Indymedia post of that nature nor would I have forwarded it to the list in the first place. I was simply intrigued by a Cockburn article citing a prof.( at a specified university) that claimed to have compared tapes and found them to be similar so I simply quoted it exactly as published in that online publication. Look, I am not making the left look sloppy or anything else of the sort. The post was innocent enough -- just something to throw out there for discussion or possible investigation, or for comment if anyone had heard anything similar. I think the already existing thread has caused my simple post to be recieved as if it were meant to be a contribution to an ongoing debate(unbeknownst to me) on the validity of a rumour. That having been said we should be clear about what this means if it does it turn out to be true. It does *not* mean that the story of Palestenians having celebrated is not true -- it almost certainly is. Nor would it be (nor as far as i know has anyone suggested that it be) something to base or justify our opposition. What it does show is how sleazy and how crassly and manipulative CNN and the mainsteam media are in attempting to whip up xenaphobic outrage. It would help us in attempting to delegitimate what is most certainly to be a key institution for manipulating public opinion for the upcoming mobilization for war. There and only there lies its propagandistic use -- as a tool for deligitimation. Unfortunately there are at times certain (well meaning) tendencies on the left --often pacifist-- that feel the need to depict the victims of American terror as being above reproach in manner and behaviour in order to elicit sympathy and solidarity for them. Its a need that largely stems from the requirements imposed by liberal ideology -- that only beautiful well-behaved victims are deserving of compassion, not the uppity ones that may have ideas about striking back. Aside from being offensively condescending, it is also dishonest, unprincipled and dangerous as a strategy. I personally am neither surprised, nor am I particularly offended by the fact that that some Palestenians, born and bred in concentration camps and subject to decades of terror, would choose to celebrate what they see as their tormenters comeuppance, rather than light candles and sing kumbya.

-pradeep



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