Here's a possibility (mind you this is just uninformed speculation on my part):

CNN's apologia is true up to a point. I.e., they've only spun their motives as a perversion of journalism's protection of sources and maintenance of access.

What if their Baghdad Bureau were a front for Iraqi Intelligence? I.e., so-called correspondents were actually Iraqi agents? They would have the run of the country looking for stories corroborating the party line that the sanctions were killing innocents, and uncovering people willing to talk to the press off the record who could then later be "disappeared".

Also, since they would also have access to CENTCOM and the Pentagon, I wonder if they were actively distributing intelligence to the French, Germans, Russians, and Iraqis.

It's time to go over CNN's financials with a very fine-tooth comb. Follow the money, especially foreign investment, into CNN.

This admission by CNN is simply the first low hanging fruit from the American Government's possession of the Iraqi Government archives.

There will be lots of other stories like this on the "Big Media" while the spooks digest what Iraqi Intelligence and WMD programs were up too.

I picked the following up on the Free Republic. It is an exerpt from the "Kinzey Report**":

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/891851/posts

"Both the news media and Iraq had many things in common, one of which was that they brought their problems on themselves. I explained how the news media, particularly CNN, inaccurately reported the war, misstating the facts, and in many cases deliberately telling outright lies. I dedicated an entire chapter to a dishonest CNN report about the B-1 bomber and evaluated its inaccuracies line by line. I illustrated that the report was full of lies, and these were about clearly established facts and not about someone's opinion. I spoke in person to the people in the Pentagon that CNN had been interviewed and filmed for that report, and they told me how CNN edited what they said to make it seem like they were saying exactly The opposite of what they actually said. I spoke with CNN's people here in Atlanta and at the Pentagon, including Wolf Blitzer, and he admitted he knew nothing about the military. A CNN employee in Atlanta admitted to me that they did not care if they got their reporting accurate. They only wanted to get it on the air first and in the most dramatic manner possible. Their primary purpose was to make money by selling ad space, not reporting the news. The story goes on and on."

** "Bert Kinzey is a former Army officer who became an expert in military aviation and has authored literally dozens* of books, principally aimed at the aviation enthusiast and scale modeler, and that are definitely apolitical. However, with his research efforts on military subjects he has gained a wealth of contacts within the U.S. military, and is one of the premier authorities on military subjects in this country."

Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan unearthed a Time interview with Scott Ritter in which he revealed he had, in 1998, come across the children's prison and had kept quiet about his discovery because he thought those who wanted to promote war against Saddam would use the information to their advantage. He was, "waging peace" at the time. Could there have been a quid pro quo between the UN weapons inspectors and the Saddam regime: acces to some things for keeping quiet about others. And could this be the reason why Ritter seem to change his position 180 degrees and become a supporter of Saddam once he was forced out of the country? We all knew he got the money for his suck-up documentary film, but could it be that the Saddam had him by the short hairs with much more incriminating information buried in the archives? Somehow, the media and the "peace activists" missed this story when it came out; even the Time interviewier let it slip by.

It seems odd that Iraqi officals were telling CNN all those ugly things. Were they just blabbermouths, or did they feel very confident that CNN was on their team?...

While there could be more to this story, the most obvious explanation to me is the point above, also made on my weblog, that the TV news media has flip-flopped priorities over the last 20+ years; it is now primarily an engine for advertising dollars, and only secondarily involved with reporting and especially investigating news stories. The conflicts of interest are large and unavoidable.

This is a natural, but catastrophic, by-product of the 24 hour cable news cycle. James Fallows argues this quite impressively in "Breaking the News", the best book about the failures of the media I've yet read (though the list is not that long, I'll admit).

John W - you're right, why on earth would Uday or any other government source tell CNN who they were going to assassinate? That is really strange ...

Not really.

The Hussain regime wanted the Iraqi people to know the extent of their "power". They made sure that the Iraqis knew about mass executions of women, stories of which were squelched in the foreign papers.

Letting the people know that an assasination was scheduled; then letting them know it had been carried out, is a very chilling display of ruthless power.

If what you say hint at is true, that CNN is doing pre-emptive damage control and trying to hide something darker, I would think that this would fit the allegation to a tee.

I found this at command-post.org. http://www.command-post.org/archives/005223.html (Please forgive me if the link doesn't come through, I'm new to this.)

It was a summary of headlines from arabic media translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).(Not my caps)

ON TUESDAY, THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTRY COLLECTED 'SERVICE CHARGES' FROM FOREIGN JOURNALIST AT THE TUNE OF $200,000, THEN DISAPPEARED. (AL-SHARQ AL-AWSAT, LONDON 4/11/03)

That's my theory, anyway.

I'm with Adriane here. Why does Uday tell CNN who he's going to kill? Because that's what killing people is all about.

Uday kills people so that he can talk about himself killing people. He rapes little girls so that he can talk about himself raping little girls. He tortures soccer players so that he can talk about himself torturing soccer players.

Looking for rational thought processes from this guy is a mistake. He's such a screwup even at being a bully that the old man had to fire him in favor of his little brother.

I'd be more inclined to believe the CNN bureau in Iraq was a CIA front than an Iraqi intelligence front. FWIW

Also?

"A CNN employee in Atlanta admitted to me that they did not care if they got their reporting accurate. They only wanted to get it on the air first and in the most dramatic manner possible. Their primary purpose was to make money by selling ad space, not reporting the news."

I'd say most of the media feels that way today. The push for ratings and the accompany advertising dollars is making 'fast' a heckuva lot more important than 'right.'

I miss Walter Cronkite.

all i know is this kinzey report re: cnn is funny, he states to watch FOX news, he forget that fox new has such good rep[orters like "oliver north", "mark furhman" list goes on & on, i call CNN, FOX & MSANBC (WMD) weapons of mass distraction...

bob

ps dont believe the hype

Mishka rules !

Boris rules !