By Don Irvine.
The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple blog is reporting that CNN president and CEO Jeff Zucker consulted with Muslim employees of the cable news network regarding his controversial decisions after the terrorist attack on the Paris office of the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people were killed.
Zucker was addressing a town hall meeting of network staffers when he made his remarks:
‘I talked to employees in … hotspots. I reached out to Muslim employees. I reached out across the company,’ says a source who attended the session, abridging Zucker’s message.
To date, CNN hasn’t aired the cartoons that purportedly led to the radical Islamist attack on the Hebdo office, nor the cover of the “survivors issue” that quickly sold out this week when it went on sale.
Zucker told employees that while not airing the cartoons went against his best instincts, he made an exception in this case:
But my first priority has to be to the safety and security of the employees of CNN … If somebody gets killed because we aired this, that’s on me.
Not that there were any specific threats against CNN employees, but it does provide a convenient excuse for Zucker. This way he can avoid any potential backlash from Muslims who sympathize with radical Islamic terrorists, and it keeps him in line with the White House’s view, which is to placate the terrorists rather than take a tough stance against their actions.
If viewers want fair and balanced coverage on this issue, they will have to look elsewhere.
