Tag Archives: sayyed-mohammad

Cal: Amanpour Thinks Like Nasr But Too Smart To Tweet It

CNN fired an editor for expressing “a lot” of “respect” for a Hezbollah leader the US had designated a terrorist.  So how has ABC dealt with someone with similar views?  By hiring her and awarding her the prestigious plum of host of This Week. So what’s the difference between Octavia Nasr and Christiane Amanpour?  According to Cal Thomas, little, when it comes to their views.  It’s just that Amanpour is too smart and sophisticated to stick her views on a Tweet. Thomas shared his insight on this weekend’s editon of Fox News Watch. JON SCOTT: A Tweet that cost a reporter her job.  Octavia Nasr was CNN’s senior Middle East editor for 20 years until this week, when learning of the death of a Hezbollah    cleric she decided to share her grief via Twitter, writing there “sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.  One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”  A giant whom she so respected, designated a terrorist by the US Treasury Department. The Tweet immediately became a center of controversy and CNN fired Ms. Nasr. . . . . CAL THOMAS: The dirty little secret here is that she was simply expressing viewpoints that is widespread not only in the American media but much of the Euro media.  If you watch the BBC, for example, as I frequently do when I’m over there, coverage of the Middle East, it is virtually all one-sided, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel.  Christiane Amanpour holds many of these views as well, I would daresay, but she is smart enough and sophisticated enough not to stick them on a Tweet. Jake Tapper has been drawing widespread praise and solid ratings while serving as This Week guest host.  Is ABC sure it wants to hand the reins over to someone with Amanpour’s ample baggage?

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Cal: Amanpour Thinks Like Nasr But Too Smart To Tweet It

CNN and CNN.com Omits Firing of Middle East Senior Editor Nasr

Both CNN and CNN.com have punted on the firing of Octavia Nasr, the network’s senior editor of Middle East affairs, after she mourned the death of Islamist cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, “one of Hezbollah’s giants,” to use her own phrase, on Twitter. None of CNN’s on-air programming nor the website has mentioned her “leaving the company” since the news broke on Wednesday afternoon. Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer posted an item on Nasr at 3:38 pm on Wednesday about Nasr which included the text of an internal memo from CNN International’s Senior Vice President Parisa Khosravi which, as Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey pointed out , “makes it clear that this was no resignation:” I had a conversation with Octavia this morning and I want to share with you that we have decided that she will be leaving the company. As you know, her tweet over the weekend created a wide reaction. As she has stated in her blog on CNN.com, she fully accepts that she should not have made such a simplistic comment without any context whatsoever. However, at this point, we believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward. The senior editor acknowledged in the July 6 blog entry on CNN.com that her Tweet was an “error of judgment” on her part, but then continued her eulogy of the deceased Hezbollah spiritual leader: “I used the words ‘respect’ and ‘sad’ because to me as a Middle Eastern woman, Fadlallah took a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman’s rights. He called for the abolition of the tribal system of ‘honor killing.’ He called the practice primitive and non-productive. He warned Muslim men that abuse of women was against Islam.” Nasr did later qualify this by stating that “this does not mean I respected him for what else he did or said. Far from it….Sayyed Fadlallah. Revered across borders yet designated a terrorist. Not the kind of life to be commenting about in a brief tweet. It’s something I deeply regret.” Other than the July 6 blog entry, a search of CNN.com turned up no stories on the controversy over the senior editor’s Tweet, nor her “leaving the company.” In fact, as of 12:40 pm Eastern on Thursday, Nasr’s bio still appears on the website.

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CNN and CNN.com Omits Firing of Middle East Senior Editor Nasr