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Reports out of Israel this past week were that CNN had fired all Jews working in their Jerusalem bureau. What difference is a little more anti-Semitism in the main stream media anyway?

It was first reported on the Dreuz Info website last Thursday February 9. The article “CNN Israel fired all Jewish journalists” stated in the first paragraph,

It is likely to provoke a wave of shock and indignation within the North American media industry, and it certainly will not calm down the controversy over the pro-palestinian CNN treatment of the conflict.

The article went on to explain,

What goes beyond good management is that CNN has fired four Israeli Jewish journalists (out of a crew of 8), and has retained only Arab journalists. Where, until now, CNN always sent a Jewish and an Arab journalist to cover information, now there will be only an Arab journalist. The local chief editor of the News Chanel is now Arabic.

An update added to the article listed the names of those fired and their positions,

Update at 8:30 PST: we just received the names of the four journalists that were fired:

Moshe Cohen, editor, fired on january 30, 10 years with CNN.

Izi Landberg, Producer, about 25 years with CNN, fired on January 30.

Avi Kaner cameraman fired on january 30, 10 years with CNN.

Michal Zippori desk producer, situation still unclear.

The story went viral and was re-posted on every Pro-Israel and Anti-Jihad site with each publication simply placing the original article from Dreuz or quoting the original article. Some of those placed a paragraph or two above the story venting their frustration and anger, but no matter how much I searched I couldn’t find any other story confirming the original story.

Those that are regular readers of mine know that I treat every story with a grain of Middle Eastern sand and like to triple and quadruple check everything before I state it as fact. So, as usual, check with the source. Where better to check out a story about CNN, then on CNN?

CNN reported the story as false, but the wording of their statement was questionable to say the least,

CNN Statement on Jerusalem Bureau

Rumors that CNN is only employing Arabs in its Jerusalem Bureau are completely false.

There are Israeli Jews working in CNN’s Jerusalem bureau.

The bureau chief, Kevin Flower, is not Arab as some have speculated.

We strongly reject any suggestion that the reorganization in the Jerusalem bureau is in any way based on the small number of contract employees concerned being Israeli, particularly given CNN’s long history of working with locals in the region.

The original article stated that all “Jewish journalists” had been fired, is CNN playing word games?

Yes, there may very well be Israeli Jews working in the CNN Jerusalem bureau, but are any of them “journalists” or do they have an Israeli working the door as security?

Also, nowhere did I see any reports claiming that bureau chief, Kevin Flower was an Arab. Yet CNN felt it necessary to state “The bureau chief, Kevin Flower, is not Arab as some have speculated”.

Perhaps that was due to the wording of the original story on Dreuz and perhaps their wording was misleading. Allow me to explain, there are many Arabs that are Jewish, just as there are Arab Christians and Arab Muslims.

Did CNN fire all Jews and only retain those that were not? CNN does not deny that Kevin Flower is not Jewish; they only state that he is not an Arab. Just another play on words when you read the CNN statement.

But let’s look at the CNN Jerusalem office for a moment. According to a CNN press release, the Jerusalem Bureau first opened in 1983. Kevin Flower had been the Baghdad Bureau Chief and was appointed Bureau Chief of the Jerusalem bureau on January 3, 2009.

What happened to those who held the position before Flower? Mike Hanna comes to mind, he was the CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief and went to… Wait for it… Al-Jazeera.  According to Al-Jazeera,

Mike Hanna (Doha) is a journalist with more than 25 years' experience of reporting from the world's hot spots; formerly, Mike was CNN's Jerusalem bureau chief, supervising and leading the network's ongoing coverage of the dramatic events in the region.

Mike Hanna is just one example, a great example at that, of CNN bias towards Israel. But it goes much farther than a previous Jerusalem bureau chief moving to Al-Jazeera.

If you bother to watch CNN and their reporting from Israel, to say it is slanted would be an understatement. CNN doesn’t use subliminal messages, no, they just slant the stories. When reporting on Jewish settlements they refer to them as “illegal” Jewish settlements. Often they refer to parts of Israel as “Palestine”.

There is no doubt about bias in the media, we have all witnessed it and I have written about extensively, but for CNN to fire all “Jewish” journalists from an office located in the ‘Jewish State’ seems to go back to the Nazi era of “Juden verboten” (Jews forbidden).

Yeah, anti-Semitism isn’t on the rise, it’s all just our over active imagination, but I wonder, will CNN bother to release the names of those that are Jewish who are still employed in their Jerusalem office since that would be the easiest way to put the story of bias to rest?

I doubt it, I’ll be waiting, but I won’t be holding my breath, I look really bad in blue.