CNN Mideast Affairs editor loses post after tweeting her respect for militant cleric

Octavia Nasr, CNN’s senior editor of Mideast affairs, lost her post Wednesday amid mounting criticism of a message she posted on Twitter expressing sadness at the death of a Lebanese cleric who once was an influential spiritual leader of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

Nasr, who had worked for the cable news network for two decades, had already apologized in a blog post on CNN.com for “an error in judgment” in writing that Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah was “one of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot" after his death Sunday.

At one time Fadlallah was considered a major spiritual leader of Hezbollah. In recent years, however, he had lost influence as he distanced himself from many elements of radical Islam and had condemned violence against women. Fadlallah continued to call for the elimination of Israel and was designated a terrorist by the U.S., Nasr noted in her blog post.

Nasr’s remarks were condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which called Fadlallah “an international ‘godfather’ of terrorism” and asked CNN to formally repudiate the comment.

The network issued a statement saying the tweet violated CNN’s editorial standards. Nasr herself said she was wrong to “to write such a simplistic comment.”

“I'm sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah's life's work,” she wrote in her blog post. “That's not the case at all.” Rather, Nasr said, she was referring to the fact that Fadlallah took “a contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman's rights” and had called for the abolition of honor killings. She noted that she lost family members in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that Fadlallah was suspected of orchestrating.

But CNN executives concluded that her comment had irreparably damaged Nasr’s standing.

“We believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward,” Parisa Khosravi, CNN International’s senior vice president for newsgathering, wrote in an e-mail to employees announcing her departure.

Nasr, who was based in Atlanta, served as a Middle Eastern expert for CNN, contributing to coverage about the region’s politics, as well as stories about global terrorism and militant Islam. Fluent in Arabic, as well as English and French, the Lebanese-born journalist got her start as a war correspondent for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, covering that country’s civil war. She joined CNN in 1990 and played a major role in the network’s coverage of the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as the Middle Eastern peace process, according to her official biography, which calls her “a leader in integrating social media with newsgathering and reporting.”

-- Matea Gold

twitter.com/mateagold

Photo credit: CNN

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Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah dies at 74; Lebanon's top cleric was once Hezbollah's mentor

Comments

[Chris]

I was surprised and baffled at Ms. Nasr's tweet. Her tweet was likely to have been seen by thousands of people. Yet, after her 20 years at CNN she didn't stop to think before hitting send that such a message, seemingly of admiration, would lead to a public outcry.

We can assume that Nasr is also aware of Fadlallah's expression of support for the rampage of Israeli children at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva. We can assume she is also aware of his close relationship, if not leading role, with Lebanese Hezbollah. Given all of this it is despicable that she would voice admiration for the cleric.

She is entitled to her views. However, by expressing sympathy for such radical figures she is compromising the credibility of her employer, CNN, and her colleagues at that organization. This is not merely PR. Credibility is the currency on which a news organization depends. CNN cannot have their editors running around expressing sympathy for extremists who support violence. Thus, I laud CNN for their swift action.

The perplexing issue remains: why didn't she know better?

[Cletus]

"She joined CNN in 1990 and played a major role in the network’s coverage of the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as the Middle Eastern peace process, according to her official biography, which calls her “a leader in integrating social media with newsgathering and reporting.”"

That helps explain why CNN is so amazingly biased against the West when it comes to reporting on the mideast. Nasr sounds as bad as Amanpour

[Currency Trading Center]

Its an interesting article & I liked reading it.

Currency Trading Center

********
Anthony

[84NORRIS08]

Sounds like CNN reacted to public opinions, and has lost a valuable employee in the process. The public is not known for exercising reason, but it is too bad reason did not prevail.
(And on a secondary note, respect is neither admiration nor sympathy, and would not generally be construed as such.)

[Austin K]

And they say we have freedom of speech. . . apparently you'll loose your job if you exercise it. Look at what happened to Helen Thomas.

[fayez]

Is freedom of speech only limited to anti-Islamic talks?

[Ihab]

This, after the case of Helen Thomas, seems to me like the US media is conducting its very own process of ethnic cleansing.

[Zohair]

I salute her for having the guts to speak the truth. Where is the much hyped freedom of speech the west talks about?

[h dutchak]

it appears that for those who value independent reporting and free speech the cnn's reputation has been far more badly damaged by dismissing nasr than by any comments she has made. Its pathetic that such complex issues as those in the middle east are portrayed so simplistically and single sidedly in america that anyone who deviates from the official american/israeli doctrine should be so quickly and severely denounced. had cnn the guts to present the issues in their full complexity without harmful good v. bad representations, including tolerating in their employees respect for those with different viewpoints, not only could the international public have some sort of respect for american press, but maybe those so quick to cry foul would put a little thought and research before gut reactions. youre not doing yourself any favours, fox news. i mean, cnn.

[CoastalMaineBird]

"Where is the much hyped freedom of speech the west talks about?"

Oh, please - don't be ridiculous. "Freedom of speech" refers to the fact that she cannot be imprisoned for what she says.

Is she in prison? No.

Does anyone want her in prison for this? No.

Freedom of speech does not mean that no one can object to here speech, including her employer.

[CaliJohn]

Oh please. Freedom of Speech has no correlation to guaranteed employment. Think before you make a public statement that's not on a teleprompter...

[roovialk]

The comments of this woman are further proof that believers in islam put their beliefs first before common sense and being a citizen of America. Where will the next sleeper cell surface?

[Steve G]

I'll bet she also admired Saddam Hussein for his strong leadership qualities.

[Michael O'Neal]

Censorship is not dead! It must be great working for CNN censors.

It is CNN that has lost credibility, not Octavia Nasr.

I don't know how any self respecting professional journalist could work for CNN knowing how their colleagues are treated.

I like the new personalization feature in Google News. I can eliminate CNN from my news coverage. Anyone who treats their employees in such a manner should not have any.

As far a I am concerned, Osama has already won. Look how he has us treating each other.

[Will]

A media giant who survives under the Freedom of the Press, doesn't tolerate Freedom of Speech?

Is CNN Jewish owned or operated?

[andy wang]

I came from China. I know how Chinese government watch citizen voicing their opinions. In the old days (60's - 80's), not everyone who voiced anti-communism opinion was put into jail, but almost all of them would receive some kind of retribution from local authorities and their working units (in the 60's-80's, the unit is similar to company here in the US). The censorship atmosphere in China is much improved nowadays.

It very sad to see that the old tactics of Chinese censorship is routinely used in the media world here in the US, particularly when it comes to opinions on conflicts of Middle East. I used to wonder why US media is so biased towards Israel. Now it is clear: if you don't , you are fired!!!!

[Wayne Bergeron]

People posting comments here are commenting on "freedom of the press." That constitutional liberty only primarily applies to the government from abridging or preventing an individual, group, or organization from saying what they want, especially about the government itself. Private organizations like CNN or Reuters have the right to establish guidelines under which their employees must abide regarding speech while they are representives of the organization. As such, when an employee goes counter to those established guidelines, the he/she can be held responsible for their comments with reprimand and up to and including termination. Let's all get it right people.

[jef]

god forbid that she would have respect for someone progressive towards women's issues and distancing themselves from radical islam. what a cowardly knee-jerk response.

[bruce]

I don't get it. This is exactly what the left wing media is all about! The trashing of America and what it stands for. I'm surprised they didn't promote her.

[freedom of speech]

The editor's freedom of speech is not being challenged. If it were, we would be reading about her going to jail. You are confused, to say the least, to think that losing her job is a violation of her right to free speech under the US constitution. Read it sometime, you might learn.

CNN (finally) did the right thing in dumping somebody so blatantly unbalanced, but it is too late to repair this vanishing network's reputation. That is why they got rid of her, just like the other idiot, Helen Thomas. If you demonstrate that you have a personal agenda that will taint your reporting you must leave journalism and go to Fox News or Al Jazeera.