In an exclusive interview with AIM, Jim Thompson says that he decided to yank CNN and CNN Headline News from the televisions in his Stoney Creek Inn hotel chain because of the “disgusting tone” and “arrogant” nature of CNN’s defense of airing terrorist sniper videos. Thompson said that CNN was guilty of “aiding and abetting the enemy” and that it had compromised its reputation as a credible media outlet.

The terrorist videos, provided by a terrorist group, the Islamic Army of Iraq, were “solicited” by Michael Ware, CNN’s Baghdad correspondent, Thompson noted.

Thompson said he never intended for the controversy to become national news but that the story got out in two different ways. He said one guest at one of his properties couldn’t get CNN on his channel, found out about CNN and Headline News being dropped from the cable line-up, and contacted a local paper. He said one of his general managers, a member of the National Guard, was proud of the decision and spread the word. 

Thompson said the response has been gratifying, with some people calling to thank him and breaking down in tears over the obscenity committed by CNN against our soldiers.

You can thank Thompson, too, if you’re traveling in any of the four states with Stoney Creek Inns and need a place to stay.

While Thompson took action against CNN, the Pentagon did not. Several members of Congress, led by Rep. Duncan Hunter, had urged that the Pentagon prohibit CNN reporters from being embedded with U.S. troops while out on patrol in Iraq.

A clueless writer for the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) defended Ware, saying that he has “contacts who can reach out to the insurgency” and that “many Western journalists in Iraq have similar contacts…” The “angle” of covering the U.S. side of the war “has pretty much been taken care of,” he said, so it was necessary to cover the terrorist side by soliciting and airing their videos of American troops being killed. By watching the videos, he said, the American people get an “understanding” of the enemy.

I think the American people, having suffered through 9/11, do not need to understand the enemy. But this controversy has helped them understand how the enemy depends on our own media to transmit their terrorist propaganda.

To make matters worse, in the case of CJR, we have press “critics” who apologize for the bloodshed on the grounds that it is “news.”

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report.

Media Monitor: http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/5154_0_2_0_C/