In Defense Of Anderson

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Opinion: Anderson Cooper unfairly criticized for exposing lies of Egyptian leaders

February 14, 2011 by donal brown

In a commentary in Salon, Glenn Greenwald writes that journalists’ criticism of CNN’s Anderson Cooper for describing false statements of Egyptian officials as “lies” was unwarranted. The critics slammed Cooper for opinionating and abandoning objective reporting and “taking sides.”

Greenwald argues, “This warped reasoning is one of the prime diseases plaguing establishment political journalism in the U.S. Most establishment journalists are perfectly willing to use the word “lie” for powerless, demonized or marginalized people, but they genuinely believe that it is an improper breach of journalistic objectivity to point out when powerful political officials are lying. They adamantly believe that such an activity — which is a core purpose of political journalism — is outside the purview of their function.” -db

From a commentary in Salon, February 14, 2011, by Glenn Greenwald.

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Anderson Cooper angers journalists by being a real journalist

by Michael John Scott on Feb 14, 2011

Anderson Cooper has been using the word “lie” a lot in recent days while describing statements made by Mubarak and his regime. Despite the fact that the statements he’s describing are “factually false,” his liberal use of the word “lie” has gotten Cooper mocked and questioned by fellow journalists, writes Glenn Greenwald on Salon. Those critics have ultimately acknowledged that the statements he’s calling “lies” are, in fact, lies—but even so, they question Cooper’s “opinion-making” and wonder whether or not he should be “taking sides.”

But “when a journalist accurately points out that a powerful political leader is lying,” that’s not taking sides—that’s doing his job, Greenwald writes. A “watchdog” press, by definition, points out when powerful political leaders don’t tell the truth; objectivity is only breached when the opposite occurs and lies aren’t reported or are treated as truth. But the “warped” belief that journalists shouldn’t point out lies from powerful politicians pervades the industry, and that “explains a large part of the failings of both America’s media class and its political class.” Click for more, including why Greenwald wishes Cooper would do the same with American leaders.