How did CNN not see this interview going south?
When CNN’s “Reliable Sources” asked Glenn Greenwald, a co-founding editor of The Intercept, on Sunday to weigh in on whether the media has been perpetuating a thirst for war in the days following the Paris attacks, he blasted the network for being the biggest contributor to the problem and for encouraging Islamophobia.
“Well, I think that CNN has actually unfortunately led the way in this,” Greenwald told host Brian Stelter. “You’ve had one intelligence official with the CIA or formerly with the CIA after the next, gone on air and able to say all kinds of extremely dubious claims that print journalists have repeatedly documented in Bloomberg News and The New Yorker, on The New York Times editorial page [that] are totally false.”
One of the most reprehensible incidents on CNN, Greenwald noted, occurred last week when two anchors spent six-plus minutes asking why the Muslim community in France didn’t do more to stop the attacks.
“I think the worst example, probably the most despicable interview we’ve seen in the last several years were two CNN anchors, John Vause and Isha Sesay, who told a French Muslim political activist that he and all other Muslims bear, quote, responsibility for the attack in Paris because all Muslims must somehow be responsible,” Greenwald said.
In an attempt to defend the network, Stelter suggested Greenwald might be “cherry-picking” examples to prove a point. Greenwald wasn’t having it.
“This is the kind of opinionating that comes from CNN all the time ... that is never sanctioned, never punished,” he said. “You’re allowed to demonize Muslims.”
Watch the whole fiery exchange on CNN.
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