The CNN footage posting and CNNs reply

The posting

The Reply

CNN USING 1991 FOOTAGE of celebrating Palistinians to manipulate you (english) by Marcio 10:32pm Wed Sep 12 `01 I`d like to add some ideas from here, down south.

There`s an important point in the power of press, specifically the power of CNN.

All around the world we are subjected to 3 or 4 huge news distributors, and one of them - as you well know - is CNN. Very well, I guess all of you have been seeing (just as I`ve been) images from this company In particular, one set of images called my attencion: the Palestinians celebrating the bombing, out on the streets, eating some cake and making funny faces for the camera.

Well, THOSE IMAGES WERE SHOT BACK IN 1991!!! Those are images of Palestinians celebrating the invasion of Kuwait! It`s simply unacceptable that a super-power of cumminications as CNN uses images which do not correspond to the reality in talking about so serious an issue.

A teacher of mine, here in Brazil, has videotapes recorded in 1991, with the very same images; he`s been sending emails to CNN, Globo (the major TV network in Brazil) and newspapers, denouncing what I myself classify as a crime against the public opinion. If anyone of you has access to
this kind of files, serch for it. In the meanwhile, I`ll try to `put
my
hands` on a copy of this tape.

But now, think for a moment about the impact of such images. Your
people
is hurt, emotionally fragile, and this kind broadcast have very high
possibility of causing waves of anger and rage against Palestinians.
It`s simply irresponsible to show images such as those.

Finally, I`d like to say that we all regret and condemn all that has
happened in the last days; but Nikos has a point here. I really don`t
want to be misunderstood here, but the truth is that US government had
shown no respect for other countries in the last decades. In the 60s and 70s they had helped lots of military coups throughout the world (including Brazil in 64). Later, with Reagan and Bush Father, the Washington Consensus have been demolishing the bases of our economies, making us more and more dependant (and, many of us, preoccupied with this situation).

Your current president quickly made things worse: Kioto Protocol, Star Wars, Colombia Plan, the exchange of rain forest for pieces of external debt, the abandonment of the position of third party in negotiations between IRA and England, and between Palestinians and Israel. All those mistakes in US external politics made your country more hatred than before, and, of course, more vulnerable.

Listen, I`m NOT justifying the terrorist actions that took place in your country; but it seems to me that, if your leaders had come along another path of thoughts and actions, you wouldn`t be suffering what you are now.

Best regards, and the hope that everything is resolved for the best of all of us
Márcio A. V. Carvalho
State University of Campinas - Brazil

Statement from Eason Jordan, CNN`s chief news executive:

"CNN rejects as baseless and ridiculous an allegation claiming CNN televised 10-year-old videotape to illustrate Palestinians celebrating in the wake of the horrific September 11 tragedies in the United States. My colleagues and I applaud the UNICAMP for setting the record straight."

The videotape in question was shot in East Jerusalem by a Reuters TV camera crew on September 11. Reuters TV can provide confirmation.

Below is the statement from the university where the student who authored the email attends. Should you wish to follow up with the school you can call Universidad Estatal de Campinas-Brasil directly.

As you can see from the very candid statement from the university -- there is no basis in fact at all for this rumor.

OFFICIAL UNICAMP STATEMENT
17/09/01

UNICAMP would like to announce that has no knowledge of a videotape from 1991, whose images supposedly aired on CNN showing Palestinians celebrating the terrorist attacks in the U.S. The tape was supposedly from 1991, and there were rumors that the images were passed off as current.

This information was later denied, as soon as it proved false, by Márcio A. V. Carvalho, a student at UNICAMP. He approached the administration today, 17.09.2001, to clarify the following:

• the information he got, verbally, was that a professor from another institution (not from UNICAMP) had the tape;
• he sent the information to a discussion group email list;
• many people from this list were interested in the subject and requested more details;
• he again contacted the person who first gave him the information and the person denied having the tape;
• the student immediately sent out a note clarifying what happened to the people from his email list.

The original message, however, was distributed all over the world, often with many distortions, including a falsified by-line article from the student. He affirms that a hacker attacked his domain. Several E-mails have been sent on his behalf and those dating from 15.09.2001 should be ignored.