| Author | Message | | sharkman | | Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2002 5:24 am Post subject: cnn chief accuses israel of terror |
| http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4435748,00.html
Guardian | CNN chief accuses Israel of terror
Oliver Burkeman in New York and Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
Tuesday June 18, 2002
The Guardian
Ted Turner, the billionaire founder of CNN, accuses Israel today of
engaging in "terrorism" against the Palestinians, in comments that threaten
to lead to a further decline in the news network's already poor relations
with the Jewish state.
"Aren't the Israelis and the Palestinians both terrorising each other?"
says Turner, who is vicechairman of AOL Time Warner, which owns CNN, in an
exclusive interview with the Guardian.
"The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers, that's all they
have. The Israelis ... they've got one of the most powerful military
machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the
terrorists? I would make a case that both sides are involved in terrorism."
His remarks were last night condemned by Ariel Sharon's government, which
called them "stupid". Andrea Levin, director of the American proIsraeli
media watchdog Camera, said the comments were a "reprehensible" attempt to
"blur the line between perpetrator and victim".
In his first British interview since the September 11 attacks, Mr
Turner who broke philanthropic records in 1997 when he donated $1bn to the
UN argues that poverty and desperation are the root cause of Palestinian
suicide bombings.
But Daniel Seaman, a spokesman for the Israeli government, said:
"My only advice to Ted Turner is if people assume you are stupid, it is
just best to keep your mouth shut rather than open your mouth and confirm
everyone in that view."
Mr Turner also admits that he was wrong to call the September 11 hijackers
"brave" in a speech in Rhode Island that sparked outrage. "I made an
unfortunate choice of words," he says, adding that his ownership of the
Atlanta Braves baseball team meant the word was never far from his mind.
"Look, I'm a very good thinker, but I sometimes grab the wrong word ... I
mean, I don't type my speeches, then sit up there and read them off the
teleprompter, you know. I wing it."
Mr Turner is moved to tears at one point in the interview by the
"depressing" combination of conflicts like that in the Middle East and the
state of the environment, which he says demands massive global
attention "or, you know ... it's goodbye".
A senior minister in Yasser Arafat's cabinet told the Guardian he welcomed
Mr Turner's comments. Many Palestinians complain just as bitterly of a
proIsraeli bias in CNN's coverage mocking it as the "Zionist News
Network" as Israel complains of a proPalestinian one.
"I feel it reflects a more consistent approach," said Ghassan Khatib, Mr
Arafat's newly appointed labour minister and until recently director of the
Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre, a Palestinian media monitoring unit.
"One of the problems in trying to reduce the violence has been the focus of
so much international attention on Israeli rather than Palestinian civilian
deaths, although four times as many Palestinians have been killed."
CNN has been a punchbag for both sides. A widespread perception of bias
among some Israelis and US supporters of Israel has prompted several
boycotts by pressure groups, urging viewers to switch to Rupert Murdoch's
Fox News channel.
But three months ago, in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Mr
Arafat slammed down the phone after accusing her of anti-Palestinian bias.
"You are covering with these questions the terrorist activities of the
Israeli occupation and the Israeli crimes," he said. "Be quiet. Be fair.
Thank you, byebye."
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