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Michelle Haimoff

Michelle Haimoff

Posted: November 27, 2008 01:55 PM

Deepak Chopra on Mumbai: Too Controversial for CNN?


A CNN journalist interviewed Deepak Chopra last night about his take on the Mumbai attacks and how to prevent similar attacks in the future, but it looked like producers cut Chopra off when he started to get too controversial.

Chopra: What we have seen in Mumbai has been brewing for a long time, and the war on terrorism and the attack on Iraq compounded the situation. What we call "collateral damage" and going after the wrong people actually turns moderates into extremists, and that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay. Now the worst thing that could happen is there's a backlash on the Muslims from the fundamental Hindus in India, which then will perpetuate the problem. Inflammation will create more inflammation.

CNN: Let me jump in on that because you're presuming something very important, which is that it's Muslims who have carried out these attacks and, in some cases, with Washington in their sights.

Chopra: Ultimately the message is always toward Washington because it's also the perception that Washington, in their way, directly or indirectly funds both sides of the war on terror. They fund our side, then our petrol dollars going to Saudi Arabia through Pakistan and ultimately these terrorist groups, which are very organized. You know Jonathan, it takes a lot of money to do this. It takes a lot of organization to do this. Where's the money coming from, you know? The money is coming from the vested interests. I'm not talking about conspiracy theories, but what happens is, our policies, our foreign policies, actually perpetuate this problem. Because, you know, 25% of the world's population is Muslim and they're the fastest growing segment of the population of the world. The more we alienate the Muslim population, the more the moderates are likely to become extremists.

CNN: I hope you're - you've - (CNN edits out the rest and inserts him concluding the interview saying "Indian physician and philosopher Deepak Chopra.")

I don't know why CNN wrapped the Chopra interview so hastily, but perhaps it was because the network had a Chevrolet ad to run. Chevrolet. Which is a manufacturer of automobiles. Which are propelled by gasoline. Which comes from oil rich countries like Saudi Arabia. Which fund Islamic fundamentalists. Which do things like attack hotels in India.

As Thomas L. Friedman has been saying for years, "the price of oil and the pace of freedom are inversely correlated." When oil prices are high, anti-democratic regimes become richer and more powerful, terrorists get funding and the world is unsafe. When oil prices are low, the "petroauthoritarian regimes [have] to open themselves to foreign investment and educate and empower their people more in order to earn income." When there is no demand for oil at all, there is simply no money with which to fund terrorists.

I hope that CNN producers didn't edit the end of the Chopra interview in deference to their car company advertisers. Chopra touched on similar topics with Larry King earlier in the day, so perhaps cutting the interview off was just a formatting decision. I'm going to pretend that it's that. Because if I thought that a news network in a democratic country was censoring the connection between oil dependence and terrorism for fear of upsetting advertisers I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

Here's the video:

A CNN journalist interviewed Deepak Chopra last night about his take on the Mumbai attacks and how to prevent similar attacks in the future, but it looked like producers cut Chopra off when he started...
A CNN journalist interviewed Deepak Chopra last night about his take on the Mumbai attacks and how to prevent similar attacks in the future, but it looked like producers cut Chopra off when he started...
 
 
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01:47 PM on 12/24/2008
Kashmir can never be independent, even if India leaves it. Pakistan has occupied half of its territory and 'gifted' some part to China. Kashmir is a burden on Indian system but still we need to manage it since the neighboring Laddakh (a Budhist majority) and Jammu (a Hindu majority) will be on the stake.

Anyway, democracy is non acceptable for Muslim population around the world, Already Pakistan is a failure which can not control its own agency. Bangladesh neither can control population nor floods. So another country on religion basis in this region is a Mirage or future trouble.

The only solution of Kashmir is both Pakistan and India should give their occupied territory to U.S, U.S. will be able to control the growing powers (China and India) and terrorist state (Pakistan) in Asia.
09:09 PM on 12/11/2008
I agree with the analysis Deepak Chopra offers. I consider Deepak Chopra and George Galloway have something in common. Both are articulate, analytical, vocal and persuasive, able to anticipate the outcome of an immature retaliation for the good of the world-- and willing to take an independent stand (view). Chopra's deep analysis comes from having lived and experienced the days of India-Pakistan division and massacre. He wants the world to avoid that calamity at any cost . These ladies in the "view" episode do not have a correct view of him -- only bitter sarcasm. This is unfortunate. I have read Deepak's posts (responses) and his family's posts after the unthoughtful criticism of his point of view. And they have together deflected those criticisms persuasuively. If Deepak Chopra had said the same thing about Mumbai terrorism as George Galloway said about Lebanon, it would have been unexonerable or unbearable to his critics.
I really applaud Deepak for the way he persuades and shows resilience. Ask the Indian Government --what they learnt from his comments. Deepak is more popular in India than he is in the US. So he knows how to educate both the aggrieved parties, India and pakistan, by showing them his wound that he got sixtry years ago, "You both, look at my scars that have remained on my body after sixty years of your bitter animosity and fighting."
Let's be fair.
03:21 PM on 12/09/2008
Deepak has a point in making friends with extremists - however - he misses the choices that these individuals make when they take innocent lives. He also grossly mischaracterizes the efforts of coalition forces in combating these forces across the globe as "push button from 35,000 feet".

First and foremost, the extremists must denounce violence and engage with the rest of the world in a meaningful dialogue. By the way, Sharia violates fundamental human rights, even as outlined by the UN.
02:41 PM on 12/04/2008
Ms. Haimoff, I think your disbelief that the producers of a CNN news programme would knowingly censor a guest interview whose comments were not in accord with a government propaganda line is misplaced. The media has a long history of selectively permitting what information it will and will not allow to be broadcast in the interest of protecting the agenda of its corporate sponsors and the US government--stretching back at least as far as Iran-Contra and various Cold War propaganda campaigns and much farther. There is no question that something similar is occuring in this instance, because the media has remained remarkably faithful to the dogmas and doctrines of our foreign policy agenda, as it always has, and it is ruthless in quelling alternate storylines or dissenting opinions.

Mr. Chopra was being censored by CNN, despite the pretension that particular network has to being moderate/liberal. CNN and MSNBC, like FOX, are still very much in the service of the dominant elite interests, and I think it would be to the benefit of your readers to acknowledge that--after all, it has been more or less an established fact that this is the nature of the American news media since the publication of such rigorous studies as Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent". I believe The Huffington Post stands to increase its credibility the further it distances itself from the agenda pursued and the propaganda manufactured by even so-called "liberal" news outlets.
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Eva Lili
11:01 AM on 12/04/2008
The fact that a brilliant man of unceasing accomplishment should have to deign to comment on the likes of Elisabeth Hasselbeck's views IS one of the injustices of this world. Besides that unfortunate detour, I have admired Deepak Chopra for many years and learnt much from him - individuals who cling to closed views in a world that now challenges us all to be world citizens, will inevitably be left behind in the fray.
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niceradz
03:30 AM on 12/04/2008
My mother had the same question. 'Is Deepak too controversial for CNN?'

When will America really become the Democracy it espouses to be?
05:00 PM on 12/03/2008
Very good job . World needs people like u. before its too late.
07:23 PM on 12/02/2008
how do moderates become extremists.....here is how?

http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/02/stories/2008120259961000.htm
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Brian Ross
Managing Editor of Truth-2-Power.com
11:37 AM on 12/02/2008
CNN spins the news like a top. They played the election by pushing an pulling pundits to help keep viewership up. If someone is espousing an idea that won't sell well to the Fix News crowd whose eyeballs they have to court, because you and I are here, not watching TV, then they will pull the plug. All bias. No bull.
12:23 PM on 12/01/2008
It cut the interview because America does not want independent thinkers.
America does not want to be blamed in any way for anything that ever happens. We give guns to countries so they will help us. Then they turn on us, and use the guns we give them. That is considered funding terrorism. Of course, it's indirectly, and unintentional, but its what he was talking about in part. And it's no secret. But people just would like to live in a fantasy world where America is perfect, and rulse the world and does no wrong.

its the same reason Papers are not allowed to print photos of solderi's coffins, or wounded on the battlefield. We Americans prefer to believe they don't really get hurt that badly, and don't want to see how many of them die. If we do, thenw e will no longer support the war.

CNN is not an independent media. only the internet is.
02:21 PM on 12/01/2008
The networks believe that we can't handle the truth so this is why they C E N S O R !
04:55 PM on 12/03/2008
so true man. so true
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DonCosenza
10:46 AM on 12/01/2008
If only Chopra sounded as reasonable on spiritual matters.
08:46 PM on 11/30/2008
I like the Friedman argument that low oil prices dramatically reduce the power and social
impact of terrorist thugs...Chopra's assessment of what's going on in Bombay and elsewhere
in that part of the world is only partial and that's probably the best anyone can expect in a world of contentious views...unfortunately, a vastly overpopulated planet (with no end in sight) has made
Earth a living hell for everyone...yes, bloggers, the probelm is, TOO MANY PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH...
01:30 AM on 12/01/2008
Agreed. It is no accident that majority of world's problems occur in areas where people are over-breeding: Africa, S. America, Middle East.
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arevolutionofone
Badges??? We don't need no stinkin' badges.
10:58 AM on 12/01/2008
This is just another way of blaming the problem on the poor and disenfranchised and it is a complete oversimplification. You don't provide a single argument to justify your assertion. As if it follows as a forgone conclusion. As if people haven't been doing just what they're doing now, warring against each other, when there were fewer people. It may be a bigger problem with more people, but that does not address the root causes in any fashion whatsoever.

Chopra's talking about what the cause is, and where the funding comes from, for all this conflict, and what's perpetuating it. He could also have mentioned globalization and the resistance to it by indigenous peoples and fundamentalist religious peoples. And how the globalization movement has to destabilize and uproot those peoples in order to get what it wants.
05:09 PM on 11/30/2008
i really appreciate that Chopra was so direct and clear about this situation... whether or not CNN/its viewers want to hear the truth.
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OtayPanky
You're welcome
03:21 PM on 11/30/2008
Far be it from me to steal the paranoid dreams of my fellows, but I saw him yesterday doing an extended interview with Larry King.

So whatever was going on with the transmission, I don't think we can attribute it to an attempt to censor Deepak by CNN.
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03:43 PM on 11/30/2008
Thanks, "OT"

I've got a lot more to worry about than this, and no time for Larry. He did address inequitable distribution of wealth and justice, si?
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OtayPanky
You're welcome
11:32 PM on 11/30/2008
Yes, Deepak's remarks were balanced and thoughtful and went to the heart of understanding why people would resort to terrorism.
02:18 PM on 11/30/2008
Very good article expounding upon the media's lack of freedom because of ties to Big Oil/Big Automobile companies. Chopra is right on when he speaks about our funding of extremism due to oil. What is further disconcerting is the control Saudi Arabia has on us because of Bush, Cheney, Chevron, Enron, Chevrolet, et.al Where is the uproar in America over OPEC's desire to drive oil prices back above $75.00 a barrel? Does anyone believe the words of these liars? Oil was over $140.00 a barrel because of Hurricanes? No, oil was that high because of pure greed and self interest by an administration owned by Big Oil, the antiquated American Auto Industry, slimy, unethical Wall Street cronies and foreign princes. Wake up CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS and please -- FOX! The best thing that can happen is to push through legislation that breaks the corporate monopolization of the media. Thank God for Ariana and others! Hold on to the hope -- Yes we still can!
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notb observer
Technically it's a micro auto-bio...
02:19 AM on 12/01/2008
When the economy was still booming a few months ago, we could attribute the high price of oil in some degree to high demand. The demand goes beyond gas for or cars, since oil is used in fertilizers, and also makes up most of the bulk of consumer products in the form of plastic, while oil is also needed to drive a lot of industrial processes. With a recession in full swing, the decreased demand for all of the above results in a drop in prices.
However, what I have NEVER believed is that the almost DOUBLING of the price of oil in the past 2 years was due to market forces !
We were told that there weren't enough domestic refineries which drove up the price, but why would Big Oil want to spend a penny on building a refinery when they make double the money from a gallon of gas in short supply.
We were also told that there was a huge increase in demand from emerging economies like India and China. Do they expect us to believe that there are significant numbers of Indians and Chinese who suddenly not only have cars, but are able to pay $3 a gallon for gas ?
Nope, this whole oil bubble was driven by speculators. Just like the housing bubble, it was a manufactured sham, and we ended up pumping billions of our taxable income to the oil companies, and thence to the Middle East.