The Case of CNNI and the Unaired Bahrain Doc…

In a must read, Glenn Greenwald writes in The Guardian about a documentary on Bahrain which is available online but never aired on CNNI and whether there was pressure exerted on CNNI by the Bahrain gov’t to keep it off CNNI’s air…

On 19 June 2011 at 8pm, CNN’s domestic outlet in the US aired “iRevolution” for the first and only time. The program received prestigious journalism awards, including a 2012 Gold Medal from New York Festival’s Best TV and Films. Lyon, along with her segment producer Taryn Fixel, were named as finalists for the 2011 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. A Facebook page created by Bahraini activists, entitled “Thank you Amber Lyon, CNN reporter | From people of Bahrain”, received more than 8,000 “likes”.

Despite these accolades, and despite the dangers their own journalists and their sources endured to produce it, CNN International (CNNi) never broadcast the documentary. Even in the face of numerous inquiries and complaints from their own employees inside CNN, it continued to refuse to broadcast the program or even provide any explanation for the decision. To date, this documentary has never aired on CNNi.

It is CNN International that is, by far, the most-watched English-speaking news outlet in the Middle East. By refusing to broadcast “iRevolution”, the network’s executives ensured it was never seen on television by Bahrainis or anyone else in the region.

CNNi’s decision not to broadcast “iRevolution” was extremely unusual. Both CNN and CNNi have had severe budget constraints imposed on them over the last several years. One long-time CNN employee (to whom I have granted anonymity to avoid repercussions for negative statements about CNN’s management) described “iRevolution” as an “expensive, highly produced international story about the Arab Spring”. Because the documentary was already paid for by CNN, it would have been “free programming” for CNNi to broadcast, making it “highly unusual not to air it”. The documentary “was made with an international audience as our target”, said Lyon. None of it was produced on US soil. And its subject matter was squarely within the crux of CNN International’s brand.

CNNi’s refusal to broadcast “iRevolution” soon took on the status of a mini-scandal among its producers and reporters, who began pushing Lyon to speak up about this decision.

Read the whole thing…

Update: CNNI’s response…

CNN International’s Response to the Guardian

Here is CNN International’s response to Glenn Greenwald’s Guardian story about Amber Lyon’s documentary.

1. False: CNN International did not air “its own documentary”.

The Truth: It was never intended to air on CNN International. It was an hour-long program about the impact of social media on the Arab Spring that was commissioned for CNN US, where it ran in June of 2011. The portion of it that concerned Bahrain lasted about 13 minutes.

Despite Greenwald’s speculation about the editorial choices that are made when operating multiple networks with different audience profiles, there is nothing unusual about this programming decision.

2. False: CNN International ensured Amber’s reporting “was never seen on television by Bahrainis or anyone else in the region.”

The Truth: Amber’s reporting from Bahrain was actually featured and promoted on CNN International. This happened months before the full documentary aired on CNN US. While not exhaustive, here are examples when her work was featured:

April 11, 2011. Amber’s Bahrain reporting was featured four different times across the day on CNN International . This included a 14 minute segment that aired in European prime time where a lengthy portion of her reporting (which became part of the documentary) was shown and Amber was interviewed for nine minutes over two segments of the show.

April 12/overnight April 13, 2011. Amber’s reporting is again featured four different times. Again, during European prime time, there is a 17 minute segment with Amber highlighting her Bahrain reporting. A five minute segment of her Bahrain report is shown and she is interviewed and takes questions from Facebook and Twitter.

April 15, 16, 17 and 18. An entire half hour program called “Best of Backstory” is dedicated to Amber’s reporting from Bahrain. It runs five times, including a run in European prime time on April 16, 2011.

Amber was thrilled with CNN International’s showcasing of her work. She said on the air: “I was surprised. I didn’t know that that many people would look at the story so positively or really thank CNN for it. I think they created a thank you Amber Lyons CNN Facebook page and I got tons of tweets and the response has really been phenomenal.”

All told, CNN International featured Amber’s reporting from Bahrain at least 16 times in this one week period and it received almost 3 and a half hours of airtime.

At the core of Greenwald’s accusations, he casually uses references to the entire iRevolution documentary as interchangeable with Amber Lyon’s reporting from Bahrain. This is sloppy and misleading. Only a portion of the documentary covered Amber’s experiences in Bahrain, and that reporting was heavily featured on CNN International. The other segments concerned Tunisia and Egypt. Had Greenwald been clearer about this distinction, the underlying (and false) premise of his article would have fallen apart.

3. Misleading: Amber and her crew were the principal vehicle for CNN’s coverage of Bahrain in 2011.

The Truth: Amber went to Bahrain for a documentary to be aired on CNN US. Programming executives at CNN International did not even know she was there until she began tweeting from Bahrain. This was because Amber failed to follow CNN policy when traveling to and reporting from areas in turmoil.

In fact, by the time Amber arrived in Bahrain, CNN already had been covering the unrest in Bahrain for many weeks. By mid February 2011 CNN had already deployed several of its most well respected international correspondents to report on the unrest and the government’s violent response, including Nic Robertson, Arwa Damon, Rima Maktabi and CNN International Anchor Hala Gorani. Damon, Maktabi and Gorani are all fluent Arabic speakers.

4. False: CNN avoided covering events in Bahrain “in the first half of 2011.”

The Truth: CNN had multiple, top level international correspondents reporting from Bahrain as early as mid February 2011. These extraordinary reports and the multiple features of Amber’s reporting in April alone prove the falsity of Greenwald’s claim.

5. False: CNN pulled its punches in its reporting on the situation in Bahrain in 2011.

The Truth: CNN International ran more than twenty stories in February 2011 that were critical of the situation in Bahrain, including a piece by CNN Anchor Hala Gorani that spoke directly to the carefully managed public image of Bahrain and how that compared with harsh realities of life for those in the Shiite majority who are excluded from the government. Indeed, during the months leading up to the US airing of the documentary, CNN produced and aired 40 separate packages critical of Bahrain and the events unfolding there.

6. False: There was something scandalous about a requirement that the documentary include a response from the Bahraini government.

The Truth: Seeking and publishing a response from the subject of a story is Journalism 101.