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Ted Turner, the vice chairman of AOL-Time Warner and founder of CNN, got CNN into trouble a few weeks ago with a comment about the conflict in the Middle East. The result is that CNN is having to grovel to remain on the air in Israel. It has underlined the resentment many Israelis and others have long felt toward CNN for its pro-Palestinian bias in the conflict. CNN spokesmen deny this, but many who believe that Israel is facing the type of terrorism on a daily basis upon which the U.S. has declared war, believe the bias is quite apparent. They generally portray Israel as brutal oppressors, while the PLO and its terrorist operatives have been presented as sympathetic victims.

Turner gave an interview to the London Guardian that was published in mid-June on the day when another homicide bomber blew up a bus killing 19 Israelis, including many children, and badly injuring dozens more. Turner’s timing couldn’t have been worse. The Guardian reported him saying, “Aren’t the Israelis and Palestinians both terrorizing each other? The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers; that’s all they have. The Israelis, they’ve got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists?” he asked. “I would make a case that both sides are involved in terrorism.”

Turner came under fire for his comments, and he attempted damage control. He handed a statement to a CNN news anchor on the newsroom floor, and she read it on the air. It said that he regretted “any implication that I believe the actions taken by Israel to protect its people are equal to terrorism.” That showed that he still wields power at CNN, and it may indicate the source of CNN’s bias.

That same day, Christiane Amanpour was telling CNN’s viewers that there had been a “breakthrough” and that the Palestinians had dropped the wording calling for “right of return.” She was still determined to play a part in getting the so-called peace process back on track, back to where it was when Bill Clinton’s and Ehud Barak’s failed peace plan ended with Arafat’s forces waging war against the civilian population of Israel.

Responding to Turner’s latest comments and CNN’s coverage in general, the Israeli Communications Minister said that CNN had “broken all the limits and red lines in the way it covered Israel.” The local satellite TV company in Israel made a deal to add Fox News to its cable choices for the people of Israel. Eason Jordan, the head of CNN News, dashed off to Israel the next day claiming that there is no bias. But he admitted that it “was a mistake” to give so much prominence to an interview with the family of a Palestinian suicide bomber, and so little to the relatives of the victims.

As a result, in the last week of June, CNN began running a daily series interviewing families of Israeli victims. But rather than prove that there is no bias at CNN, it reflected a pathetic effort to hold on to its market share by caving in to pressure. That must be very uncomfortable for Wolf Blitzer and the others who have to do the interviews.

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