CNN reports. You run for cover. Update: WalesOnline withdraws story
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Did you hear about the plight of a South Wales couple who pointed out that CNN’s careless reporting of the Mumbai hotel siege endangered their lives?
Fox reports. You decide.
CNN reports. You pray for your life:
A SOUTH Wales couple caught in the Mumbai terror attacks claimed last night that CNN put their lives at risk by broadcasting where they were.
Lynne and Kenneth Shaw, of Penarth, warned that terrorists were listening in to the media to pinpoint Western victims. Mrs Shaw claimed the American cable TV channel had broadcast details of where they were at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
She has appealed to the media to be careful with the information it broadcasts because safety could be compromised and lives lost.
The couple flew back into Heathrow yesterday morning on a flight arranged by the British Consulate. Mrs Shaw had been forced to hide under a table as terrorists stormed the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. She and her husband were later rescued by Gurkhas and taken straight to the Australian Embassy for safety.
The couple were at the end of a month-long visit to India and were staying in Mumbai for a few days before heading back to the UK. From her home in Penarth yesterday, Mrs Shaw said: “We have been asked by the British terror police not to talk to the press.
“But the reason I would not want to talk to anyone is because our safety was actually compromised by CNN, which broadcast where we were.
“The terrorists were watching CNN and they came down from where they were in a lift after hearing about us on television. For that reason I would appeal to the media to be very careful about what they broadcast.
“When we left Mumbai there were still around 100 people trapped there.” She added: “People talk to one another on mobile phones and that gets broadcast and the terrorists knew from that.”
They never learn:

***
A CNN flack e-mails the following:
CNN requests an urgent correction to the story you are running. Please modify your headline as well so that it’s absolutely clear that Mrs Shaw has no issue with CNN at all.
CNN Statement
This story is not true. CNN has been told by Lynne Shaw that the accusations reported to have been made by her in the UK Press Association story are not accurate. She has no issue with CNN.
The alleged broadcast never happened and CNN at no time compromised her or the safety of her husband as reported.
Ends
Please note there will be an advisory on this imminently from the Press Association, as the original source of the story.
Many thanks,
Joel
Joel Brown
Senior Press Officer
CNN Europe, Middle East & Africa
We’ll see what Wales Online has to say.
Meantime, another example of the perils of talking to media during a jihadist siege here.
***
Update from the editor of WalesOnline:
ON SATURDAY, the Echo ran a story detailing how Lynne and Kenneth Shaw, of Penarth, claimed broadcaster CNN had put their lives at risk by detailing their location during the recent terror attacks in Mumbai.
The story was taken from the Press Association news agency, who have since stated: “Press Association would like to make clear that the interviewee’s allegations that CNN broadcast details compromising her and her husband’s safety have since been clarified by the interviewee’s husband to Press Association as ‘not valid’.”
I would be grateful if you could post the above clarification. I should also let you know that the article has now been removed from WalesOnline.co.uk…
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Good Morning, Michelle. It doesn’t surprise me. CNN, like others, are only interested in ratings and getting a “scoop”, regardless of who is hurt or killed. NYT has been notorious for this also. No common sense or morality in reporting the news for many reporters.
This is one of those “yell fire in a crowded theater” situations where “freedom of speech” must be suspended for the sake of mortal consequences. I hope the media can exercise the self-control or have it foisted on them. There’s NO excuse at willfully and callously turning innocents into sitting ducks.
James Greenidge
Queens, New York
And many wonder why CNN’s viewership is down.
Well, I suspect with coverage like this, CNN will be gaining viewers during every terrorist attack! Just not the viewers that their advertisers are interested in.
Ugly, isn’t it? Media darlings running their mouths regardless of who gets hurt. So what is a few more dead compared to a scoop?
Freddy…I fear, you might just be quite correct in your assumption.
Even with this news, that they endangered innocent people, the money grabbers at CNN would do it again. They appear to be working for the enemy half the time.
Well Wolf Kabitzer…what say you? No big shocker there…huh bud?
Wow. How irresponsible. But anything for a story, eh?
Our troops or innocent civilians – it seems there’s no on the MSM will protect from their beloved jihadists.
Well OF COURSE they broadcast where these people were. What could have been a more perfectly wrapped ratings present, then all the teasers for at least 24 hours of, ‘The Phone Call That Was Cut Short”. Think about it…there they were, talking to these poor people, when suddenly, a cry of, “They’re here! They found us! OMG!!!”, then a considerable amount of gunshots, screams and then nothing but “Dirka, dirka, dirka, jihad, jihad”, then silence as the line goes dead.
Heck, the commercials write themselves. It was what they wanted. Why, I can hear the producer now: “Keep her on the phone for as long as you can! Find out where she is…this is great stuff…GREAT stuff! I smell Emmy!”
the official news station of the Odhimmi Presidency is well on their way folks. Gave ol Wolfie a “tingle” just thinking about the whole thing.
People don’t matter…money and advertising bucks do.
Right from the ‘jeraldo’ school of combat reporting. “My ratings are much more important than the lives of a few of you little people.”
I seem to recall the Communist News Network showing a segment in 2005 while I was in Baghdad, Iraq, explaining how to create an EFP (a form of IED), the materials used, and an assessment of the damage it causes to American vehicles. At the time, such things were still classified. Since then, I have had no faith in the patriotism nor judgment of CNN. Not all news is worthy of print, unless of course you are rooting for the enemy. Has anyone else here seen the 1976 movie “Network“?
There is nothing to which these losers will not stoop. I refuse to watch CNN and have removed its RSS feed from my reader. They’re scum.
There are two levels of stupidity here. The first is the idiot reporter describing on air where the hidden victims are, knowing the terrorists are still in there looking for more prey. That is really obscene. The second level is CNN’s broadcast of this information. That is disgusting.
Send_Me is right. CNN, and all the other MSM outlets, have no sense of patriotism whatsoever. Nor, apparently, do they exhibit any form of decency or common sense.
It is ironic that the MSM only reports that which supports its’ views. They have long since stopped reporting and tried to make the news.
Outrageous.
Disgusting.
I’m no believer in lawsuits, but I would eagerly cheer on any family of an American victim who sued the whoppin’ hell out of CNN.
By the way, does anyone remember the classic SNL Gulf War Press Conference skit: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90lgulfwarbriefing.phtml
This reminds me of the movie ‘Die Hard’ where the reporter puts John and John’s Mclain’s wife in harms way.
Careless Nincompoop Network
Just the other day I was skimming the channels and came upon a CNN reported calmly reporting how harbor pilots in the US have a ‘button they can press’ to indicate that something is amiss on the ship they are piloting into harbor. “Which shows that this probably can’t happen here”.
Well it can now – all they need is to remove the ‘panic button’ – now that you told them all about it. I don’t care if it was ‘classified’ or not – it did not have to be broadcast.
Cynical LOL here. Better get used to it… we’re going to have a White House, Congress, and their drooling media groupies leaking everything to everybody. Of course, they’ll only leak in a way that puts Hussein in an angelic light.
It reminds me of when the US Marines were conducting a beach landing to enter Somalia and CNN was on the beach waiting for them. As soon as the Marines beached, the camera crews turned on thier lights, spotlighting the Marines on the beach.
Then of course there is the little incident of CNN showing the insurgent sniper videos from Iraq. They felt it was ok cause they would “fade out” right before the moment of impact on our troops. Of course when they had the chance to show a video where an Army medic was shot by a sniper, but it hit his body armor and he survived and after a brief firefight not only captured the sniper but rendered first aid they deemed it “not newsworthy”. Here is a link to the video the Military recovered.
They (cnn) have a working relationship with terrorists, only to “get the story” …so they have to give something back once in a while…and what a great shot it could have been…breaking in to the unsuspecting British familys room….peeulister prise potential….
A song reminds me of these blood-sucking tripe.
“Is the head dead yet? The boys in the newsroom have a running bet. Get the Widow on the set–we need dirty laundry!”
Ted Turner is only trying to do his part to trim the population, so we don’t have to eat each other.
It’s simple. She should get a good lawyer and sue for $100 million for the mental duress endured upon hearing her safe hiding place being exposed over the airways by CNN.
It’s a shame CNN didn’t have all it’s operations in the World Trade Center.
Geraldo Rivera works for CNN?
I seem to recall that during Desert Storm, CNN was, even then, one of the enemies primary sources of intelligence.
Lynne and Kenneth Shaw should do like Holly did in that movie, and punch that reporter in the nose.
While I’m not one to yell “law suit” at every turn, I think that just as deformation isn’t protected by the Free Press clause neither would this. A suit for 2/3rds of their operations budget for the time period of the incident… plus “psychological hardship, pain & suffering” on top would help CNN understand the negative impact of helping jihadi. It could start w/the salaries of those reponsible for deciding to broadcast the info. Its obvious they: (1)lack reasoning skills to see why its a bad idea to tell murders they missed some targets; (2)to them ratings bumps justify participating in additional loss of life; or (3) they’re cheering for the jihadi.
If the problem is #1, they lack intellectual acuity, & need help bringing reality into focus. There’s nothing better to sharpen critical thinking skills than enforced poverty for a few years. If it is #2, they value the position of CNN, & theirs as “journalist” more than human life. I’d have court-ordered rumors of them insulting mohammad spread throughout the ME, which after a few years would be “found” to be mistaken. If #3 obtains, well I don’t know…
BTW:
I’ll note that the actions of the various MSM outlets, the NYT, CNN, etc, when taken in toto for each outlet does seem to point to item #3. They’re exceedingly quick to side w/anyone who murders more than 5 people at a go & to work against those trying to limit the carnage. It very much goes beyond the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality to an anti-civilization mindset. It almost seems suicidal, because if the jihadi win, they’ll be among the 1st batch of harvested heads from the killing fields.
Indeed, it seems as if they so loath themselves they want to suicide, but are so cowardly they require our company on the journey. While I can agree with the 1st sentiment, as they are contemptable creatures all, I don’t feel a need to accompany them on the trip. Indeed, in a decade, they’ll get what they deserve most & most fear: they’ll be forgotten. No one will care they ever held a mic.
Look at it this way, 2 more deaths would make for better headlines. This is why I will never ever ever ever talk to the press while in uniform.
During WWII the press had an unspoken agreement not to show Roosevelt in his wheel chair. The fear was it might give the enemy strength by showing Roosevelt’s physical weakness.
Times have changed.
It would be nice if CNN would have given the police the locations of the terrorist gunmen, rather than their targets in hiding.
I suppose it would have been unethical to inform on an “alleged perpetrator”. It might violate his rights. CNN has show its integrity once again. They have a record that the ACLU would be proud of.
GEE!
Dose anyone actually watch that network besides terrorist?
Liberals.
How about bumperstickers:
or
or
or …
Its fun to play! Make your own!
Israeli Hostages brutally tortured in Mumbai Will the left be upset about innocent people being tortured and killed? Or will they save their outrage for the next time a terrorist has water poured in his nose for thirty seconds?
zorro said: (#7)
I would say more like 2/3.
“Mrs Shaw claimed the American cable TV channel had broadcast details of where they were at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.”
CNN got the information that endangered the Shaws from the Shaws. How did their conversation go prior to their calling CNN. Was it like this?
Note to m/m Shaw: Next time call the FBI.
We all know the answer to that one.
Foxnews and CNN (I don’t watch that other news channel) showed people standing in the windows of there hotel rooms. How hard would it have been for any terrorist to figure out which rooms they were in?
They both were horribly irresponsible.
One of the leading voices in the U.S. on the subject of Journalistic Standards and Ethics is the Society of Professional Journalists. The Preamble to its Code of Ethics states:
…public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility.
DOES CNN FOLLOW THOSE ETHIC STANDARDS?
James, I agree. Perhaps a lawsuit against CNN would curtail their voracious appetite for gossip, slander, and treason. This is NOT protected speech, nor freedom of the press, as you so ably stated.
My one fear is that if CNN gets the short end of a lawsuit, that they would just stand in line for a bailout at OUR expense. :groan:
CNN is and has been for some time an enemy of the USA.
Gee, CNN reporters and news people are idiots. There’s a shocker.
/sarc
The Mumbai terrorist attack should put the lie, once and for all, to Christine Amanpour’s despicable series called “God’s Chosen Warriors”. The theme of the Amanpour series was that there was nothing unique in Muslim terrorism. To the extent that Amanpour conceded that there was such a thing as Islamic terrorism, Amanpour insisted that “terrorism” by Christians and especially Jews, was far worse than anything that Muslims have done. Amanpour depicted Muslim extremism as an inevitable result of Israel’s policies and the policies of George Bush. In contrast, she depicted Jews as being a crazed messianic religion and Christians as being a collection of Reverend Hagees’. When she interview Shimon Peres, Amanpour could not control her rage. She started screaming at Peres: “Your words, Your words”.
…and it was the MSM that insisted our troops did not have proper body armor which got the liberals panties in a bunch and almost forced (by public opinion) our troops to have to accept the crappy Dragon Scale armor.
The MSM could care less about the troops and they just proved they do not care about the country. I predict the MSM will get the Fairless Doctrine pushed through soon after Obingo gets sworn in. My money is within the first 100 days. There will be nothing fair about it. It will be their opportunity to squelch the rights voice.
Of course it is hard to complain about the MSM when you pay your cable bill (which is why we will never have cable).
CNN keeps trying to position itself as the sensible moderates in between Fox on the right and everyone else on the left, but they keep slipping into NYT-like bad habits.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s when we had crews get put on standby with bags packed, we would tune into the Classified News Network to find out where we would be going.
I’ll never forget that scumbag CNN correspondent in Baghdad during Gulf War I refering to our Tomahawks as “enemy missiles”.
What the heck does CNN care? They’ll just say Bush lied and people died. Never mind their role in things.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
http://www.federalistpartyblog.blogspot.com
I don’t think it’s that they never learn. They just don’t give a rat’s ass.
I give no credit to CNN. During the event, they kept putting on people who blamed it on the US. However, when I turned to Fox in the hopes of seeing pro-US, or at least neutral coverage, I saw Bill O’Rielly “joking” with Dennis Miller. Both networks are shameful in different ways.
Keep in mind that the Obama administration will employ a Clintonesque policing/investigative policy in it’s approach to terrorism. Knowing that, we can expect more of this kind of jihadi tactic knowing they have much more freedom to operate. Sorry but this is not a job for Interpol.
Maybe Barry was onto something last year when he suggested we attack Pakistan. After all, that’s where the punks came from. Indians dispise the Pakistanis.
We absolutely would have lost the war with the current crop of “reporters”, weak kneed politicians of dubious loyalties and 5th columnist Hollywood during WWII.
Hitler is thinking, “Why couldn’t I have been born in the mid 20th century?”
The good news – she’s safe in any Muslim terrorist attack…
“Amanpour reporting here, from inside the hotel. With me is one of the disaffected youths. Tell me, are you going to kill those Jewish women and children first – we need to get a camera set up over there that doesn’t have an unsettling turkey farm in the background…”
These situations never seem to have people professional enough calling the shots when they happen. In the scramble to present the story there does not seem to be a lot of that infamous elitist intelligence they are so fond of crediting themselves with.
Anytime there is a hostage situation or the potential of tipping off a perpetrator should be a line they know not to cross ahead of time.
I found the early stories from Rueters very despicable. They refuse to call the attackers terrorists or murderers but rather refer to them only as militants. To read their accounts it was as if two armed groups were engaging in a firefight instead of the real story of terrorists mowing down defenseless and innocent people with murderous and calculated coldness against humanity.
This media world of today is a very sick place.
That wasn’t Somalia – it was “Operation Urgent Fury” – Grenada. I’m sure if they could have blown the Somalia operation they would have, though.
Oxymoron
Traitors one and all.
The CNN incident with the Marine landing occurred in Somalia.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEFD9163BF933A25751C1A964958260
I think it’s obvious that, for your own security in these dangerous situations: “Terminate any and all news personnel immediately.”
I had some “involvement” with Urgent Fury. The media was furious that they had been blacked out until after the landings had taken place.
The stupidity seems to have extended to the brass who told reporters ahead of time where the landing would be. Good grief, talk about putting your people at risk…
CNN and BBC announce their new motto: “We don’t have to be responsible for our actions. We are the press!”
Frankly, I don’t think these idiot reporters are smart enough to figure out they are helping to kill people but I don’t think they would care if they did.
CNN can’t brain today; they has teh Dumb. They are a.) baffled that terrorists are attacking even though Obama was elected and b.) convinced that despite India and Pakistan having a long history of war and terrorism, that the Mumbai attacks are entirely the result of American policy.
By the way, Ted Turner praises the KGB as an “honorable place to work”. That explains so much about CNN
I still think they should have prepared the beach with naval gunfire.
Why in the world does ANYBODY care what Ted “Moron Mouth” Turner thinks about ANYTHING?
Tell the scores of millions of Soviet citizens MURDERED by the KGB and their predecessor agencies that their murderers worked at an “honorable place.”
You have to be deranged to say something like this. And Brokaw just sat there. His book should be titled, “Call Me A Communist Idiot.”
‘Bout as serious as Geraldo Rivera was when he drew a diagram in the sand of U.S troop postitions in Iraq, for the camera.
Needless to say, we ended his ‘embedding’ privileges.
It will be interesting to see how this story plays out. It seems too odd to be true. If I am in a life-or-death situation, I don’t think I would choose to spend my last moments chatting with a news reporter. Of course, I don’t have the numbers to media outlets, so that may make it a little more difficult to speak to them. If I absolutely had to speak to someone, it would probably be my family and friends. I also don’t think I would be issuing statements to the press a day after my rescue…especially if the police specifically told me not to speak to the media.
Off topic Alert:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=82370
I dont know if y’all know….but here is something serious to think about re Obingo’s presidency.
To he77 with CNN and the traitorous pig they rode in on. Rotten, good for nothing Anti-American propaganda machine. I cannot wait for the day that they and their parent company, Provda, close down.
Why does anyone feel compelled to call the press and talk to them?
SCTeacher makes a good point. Who called whom? How did the people trapped in the hotel get connected to CNN?
I certainly don’t keep those numbers in my cell phone. And I don’t see those numbers listed on their web sites. Did these people take the time to look up CNN/SKY News on their smart phones and call? Were the local channels broadcasting numbers on the TV banner screens for people trapped in the hotels to call into?
I certainly wouldn’t call CNN in such a situation and I am not sure I would waste much time talking to them with a bunch of troglodytes from hell running around with explosives and automatic weapons.
Kind of strange.
The Government of India is chomping down on some of their own journalist for stepping over the line.
Indian journalists in media firestorm
But I learn something every day. Here I thought Ted “Moron Mouth” Turner was dead and now I know he just looks that way
He still married to the slut from Hanoi?
As noted in today’s WSJ, CNN has been using Deeprak Chopra as an expert on terrorism and the Mombai murders. Chopra is a talk show doctor and he mutter cliches about how enemas lead to good mental health. In reality, Chopra could not cure a case of teenage acne. But on all his CNN appearances, Chopra has been claiming that the Bush policies have turned peace loving Muslim kids into robotic monsters against their better angels. Chopra has a most willing audience in the dim witted and obsolete Larry King. King sucked up to Chopra in the same way he sucked up to Farrakhan. Is it any wonder that CNN’s ratings are in the toilet?
The media are less interested in reporting the news than in pursuing an agenda, which means they are hiring ideologues less than pure journalists who would not have made such a lame mistake as was made in reference to this couple.
So, CNN & Wales Online withdrew the story as, not a valid story?
Smells fishy to me… CYA????