Faced with outrage over airing a video showing terrorists shooting and killing American soldiers in Iraq, CNN is auctioning off a Hummer it used to cover the liberation of Iraq in order to raise money for wounded vets.

On January 20, the Hummer will be auctioned off by Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. in Scottsdale, Ariz. “We’ll be donating all the proceeds to the Fisher House Foundation,” said Jennifer L. Martin, a spokesperson for CNN. Fisher House is a program that provides humanitarian assistance to veterans of the Iraq War and their families.

This announcement comes as the Stoney Creek Hospitality Corporation, which operates 10 Stoney Creek Inn hotels in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin, has dropped CNN and CNN Headline News from its basic cable offerings because CNN aired terrorist videos of American soldiers being killed in Iraq.

Company President James Thompson said of CNN’s decision: “I am repulsed by that judgment, and I made a decision of conscience for myself. There comes a time when you either stay silent or speak out, and this was wrong.”

In response, Rep. Duncan Hunter called for the Pentagon to expel any CNN reporter embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. CNSNews.com reported a Hunter spokesman as saying that being embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq is “a privilege, not a right,” and CNN violated that right by airing the terrorist video.

“Media Help Kill Our Troops” was how the blog of war characterized it. Yet, one post lamented the Pentagon’s failure to expel the CNN Reporters, saying, “…just when I thought the Pentagon would pull all CNN embeds from Iraq, no, I see more of John Roberts, not less. I’ve cut back to watching just Lou Dobbs, and he sometimes reports current news during his hour, so sometimes John Roberts shows up. How far they have fallen since 9/11.... My country… the only thing that keeps me from sinking into total despair is that I can’t give up while My Soldiers are fighting for my country, for people like me...”

And fighting for CNN-so it can air terrorist videos of American soldiers getting killed. No wonder most of our troops hate the media.

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report

Media Monitor: http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/5141_0_2_0_C/