CNN Caught Red Handed Falsely Using Footage To Vilify Russia

this is false, i was there. and to be honest this guy is no longer aloud in russia, this is why he started making these claims in order to get back in. sorry guys

Originally posted by Syntaxstealth
this is false, i was there. and to be honest this guy is no longer aloud in russia, this is why he started making these claims in order to get back in. sorry guys

lol, ok so based on just two lines from you, with no supporting lines, videos, or nothing, we're all just supposed to disregard all of this? That's kind of insulting to the board, is it not? You gotta do a lot better than that.

And while you're at it, please explain to me why Russia Today (presumably censored/controlled by the Russian government) would bring a guy like this in to tell his story, and then ban him from entering the country, claiming his story was false???

A big

This place never ceases to amaze me. :shk:

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
In fact, since you're in a position to make some kind of call on this, it would seem you could just pick up the phone and make that call, no?

Not exactly.

Checking from the 15th and 16th, I only find one segment from CNN showing what Russia Today describes. With one exception: while the report is talking about Russian troops closing in on Gori, and while the video does show a destroyed tank and bombed out buildings, the segment clearly labels the the images as "SOUTH OSSETIA, FRIDAY."

As the Russia Today article was posted on the 16th, I restricted the search to a forty-eight hour period from 12 AM on the 15th to 11:59 PM on the 16th. Granted, the video in question may have aired earlier.

But considering I found similar footage that was clearly labels as "SOUTH OSSETIA, FRIDAY" and the fact that Russia Today does not provide the suspect video so that we may see it, I think RT is trying to pull a fast one.

[edit on 19-8-2008 by SaviorComplex]

reply to post by tyranny22

Remember ... Russia was the original victim with Georgia being the aggressor.

That is far from the truth.
Let's look at the timeline:

This conflict has been brewing for years. Russia has deliberately instigated the breakup of Georgian territory. Moscow has promoted secessionist activities in several Georgian provinces: Abkhazia, Ajaria and, of course, South Ossetia. It has sponsored rebellious governments in these territories, armed their forces and even bestowed Russian citizenship on the secessionists. These efforts have intensified since the emergence in Georgia of a democratic, pro-Western government. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's resentment toward Georgia and its President, the U.S.-educated Mikheil Saakashvili, has seemingly become a personal obsession.

www.time.com...

It's amazing how many people in this thread are buying the Russian propaganda that Georgia started it. In actuality, Russia has been fomenting rebellion in Georgia and other freed former Soviet Republics for years, in an attempt to re-establish their empire.

In Putin's OWN words:

the dissolution of the Soviet Union was "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the [20th] century."

.from the same link.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


There are a couple of other fact sheet/timelines to look at as well:

en.rian.ru...

Most recent events leading up to war:

On March 31, 2008 a South Ossetian police post near the village of Okona in the Znaur District was attacked by a group armed with guns and grenade launchers. Military observers from the Joint Peacekeeping Force and the OSCE mission established that the shots were fired from an area controlled by Georgia. Two days before the shooting, Georgian police task force and security officers dressed as civilians had been seen in the vicinity.

On April 2 another armed group fired automatic weapons at a South Ossetian Defense Ministry checkpoint near the village of Andzi-si. The servicemen at the checkpoint did not return fire.

A total of 56 incidents of ceasefire violation by Georgian forces were registered by the Joint Peacekeeping Force in April 2008. Most of them involved random shooting with the purpose of fueling tension in the region. Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, commenting on the explosion of an anti-personnel mine that injured a local police officer near the village of Kheiti, accused Russian peacekeepers of planting the mine. Later he spoke on Georgia's Alania TV Channel accusing the South Ossetian government of issuing 1,500 fake Russian passports to local residents.

On May 14 President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity said the Georgian special services were planning a terrorist attack in the territory of the self-proclaimed republic against Georgians and Georgian peacekeepers.

On May 15 Captain Vladimir Ivanov, an aide to the Joint Peacekeeping Force commander for contacts with the media, announced a planned rotation of the peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia. Georgian media then spread information about an alleged expansion of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the conflict zone, quoting Georgia's foreign minister. A routine rotation was described as a "provocation" and a "reckless enterprise."

On May 16 a bomb exploded on a roadside 200 meters from the Georgian village of Ergneti in the conflict zone. No one was hurt. Another bomb was detonated on the road between the Georgian villages of Eredvi and Ditsi. A Georgian Interior Ministry car was hit, injuring one Georgian special task force officer. A third explosion occurred on the same day in the vicinity of the village of Nikozi, where a local resident was injured by a mine in a field.

On July 3 as Dmitry Sanakoyev, head of the ‘alternative' Georgian-backed government of South Ossetia, was driving across the republic to Batumi to attend an international conference, his car was struck by a mine and fired at from the direction of local villages. Sanakoyev's bodyguards returned fire. The shooting went on for several minutes. Three of the guards were severely injured. Sanakoyev himself was unscathed. South Ossetian Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzayev said that the attack on Sanakoyev was orchestrated by Georgia to provide a pretext for invading the self-proclaimed republic.

In the early hours of July 4, 2008 Georgian forces used mortars, grenade launchers and guns to fire at Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, and the villages of Ubiat and Dmenis. One person was killed and three wounded. Georgian officials claimed that South Ossetia started the shooting and Georgia was forced to fire back in self-defense.

On July 7 the police in Russia's Southern Federal District detained four military men from the Georgian Defense Ministry in the village of Okon, South Ossetia's Znaur District. Officials of the breakaway region of South Ossetia claimed the detained men were pursuing intelligence activities in the Tskhinvali region. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili considered the detainment a hostage situation. On July 8, the detainees were released.

On July 9, Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement concerning the aggravated situation in the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflict zones, which said that "For the past several days, the situation in the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zones has intensified. The city of Tskhinvali has been shelled by the Georgian army, with victims registered among civilians. Fighters and unmanned aircraft of the Georgian Air Force have repeatedly violated the conflict territorial air zones. In a terrorist attack, a South Ossetian police officer was killed. Georgian military set up a post at a strategic site near the village of Sarabuki. Additional military equipment was moved from Georgia into the conflict zone without any coordination with the Joint Peacekeeping Forces, which was registered by military observers including by the OSCE mission in Georgia. These actions point to an open and planned aggression against South Ossetia, which is the internationally recognized side in settling the conflict."

On August 1 and 2, the tension in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone was aggravated due to a massive shelling of Tskhinvali's residential districts, which led to numerous deaths among civilians, with six South Ossetians killed and 15 wounded. Georgia claimed this was a response to South Ossetia's gunfire on Georgia's territory. South Ossetia began evacuating the region's residents to North Ossetia, with 2,500 people leaving their homes during the two days after the shelling.

On August 6, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said he would take "the toughest measures" toward "militants firing at the villages." Previously, the breakaway region's Defense Ministry reported that the Georgian side started sniper fire at the South Ossetian villages of Mugut and Didmukha in the Znaur District at around 12:00 p.m. According to South Ossetian sources, the Georgian special forces attempted to occupy Nul Height to gain control over the Znaur road and the South Ossetian villages located along the road. In the afternoon, it was reported that an aggressive battle was taking place at the village of Nul.

Irina Gagloyeva, head of South Ossetia's Committee for Information and the Press, told RIA Novosti that South Ossetian units had forced the Georgian military units out of Nul Height.

Georgia's Interior Ministry, however, denied the reports.

The same day, the special envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Yury Popov, said direct Georgian-South Ossetian talks with Russian mediators were offered in the Joint Peacekeeping Forces' headquarters for August 7. However, Tskhinvali refused the offer.

On August 7 Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in his national TV address to Georgia and to the Tskhinvali region, said he was ready for any negotiations to settle the conflict with South Ossetia. He suggested Russia become a guarantor of South Ossetia's autonomy within Georgia.

According to the South Ossetian Interior Ministry, on August 7 Georgia started ground fire and shelling of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali from the village of Nikozi. Then, according to Tskhinvali, the shelling and shooting at the South Ossetian village of Khetagurovo was started from the Georgian village of Avnevi. About 10 people were killed and another 50 received various wounds. The Georgian media, however, reported that the South Ossetian side had been shelling the Georgian villages of Avnevi and Nuli for three hours. According to the information of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces in the conflict zone, it was the Georgian side that started firing first. Also, there were reports that Russian peacekeepers were fired on.

On August 8 Georgia started military operations in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone.

And here's Aljazeera's version:

english.aljazeera.net...

reply to post by TrueAmerican


This is from CNN, the most liberal of all the liberal newschannels. I am totally not surprised that they'd try and villify Russia. But seriously, the Soviets are acting pretty bad out in Georgia.

Every time I checked the American media for updates regarding the conflict, I caught at least 2 falsifications each day. And the worst part is, they focused on the falsifications.

1: They showed footage of Georgia attacking South Ossetia and said it's footage of Russia attacking Georgia.

2: They showed a harbor burning, claimed it was live, even though that same footage of that same harbor was shot 2 days prior in a different location.

3: Outright falsifications, like saying Russia attacked Georgia without provocation.

4: Omitting key information, like Georgia shelling Tshkinvali.


Problem was, when I discussed my points here on ATS, so many people had been given the fake side of the story that it became impossible to argue on any point. The propaganda from American news outlets was laid on too thick.

I refuse to get my information from American news sources now.
It's not just CNN that did this, FOX did it as well. (When they weren't discussing with random uneducated people "Do you think Russia is the new Hitler?"


So simply put, DON'T GET YOUR NEWS FROM AMERICAN MEDIA, it's not news! It's sensationalism.

If you want to know who was actually reporting the news, the most unbiased companies we're Sky News and Reuters.

Unless you think Jerry Springer is for local events, don't bother checking American news outlets for Global information.

Originally posted by Blaine91555
A website that always takes the anti-American point of view quoting from a Russian media source. Russia does not have a free press so all their reports are exactly what the Russian government wants reported.

That isn't the case in any country but in most the owning class does their best to hide as much of the truth as possible. In Russia just like everywhere else lying too blatantly becomes counterproductive and as the control groups there have figured out long ago even the cleverest constructs are not of much use if the public have chosen not to believe something from a certain agency. Propaganda is most effective when a citizenry believes their system is relatively free and self correcting and that is why the US government have largely been able to stage dozens of coup's and invasions all around the world without many Americans being the wiser for it.

There have been reporters reporting from Gori for days on numerous sources about the bombing and damage. Live footage of the bombing was aired and there are reporters there as we post.

Is the new motto of ATS "Define Ignorance"?

I am sure there has and that's why reporters are getting shot at in the region. Are these the same reporters that convinced the western media that Russia somehow duped Saakasvilli into a invasion of South Ossetia? How smart must the Russians be to trick a tiny nation into providing them with the nice pretext for invasion? The same kind of genius or luck that allowed the US to dupe SH into invading Kuwait perhaps? Did the US have peace keepers in Kuwait i never heard about? What?

Georgia's borders are recognized by the UN and the entire free world. It is a Democracy with an elected government. It has a free press.

The country is in my knowledge better off than ten years ago so whatever his faults he does not seem a altogether bad guy. That being said you don't have to make many mistakes along the current lines to set a nation back decades; just ask SH.

The so called "Break Away" areas are inside of Georgia's Borders. Russia interfered with and probably caused a civil war.

And that is absolutely unheard of these days? As compared to the US Russia's leaders have done very little to change the geopolitical scene ( by invasion , coups or economic terrorism) and if they feel compelled to intervene in the affairs of the nations on their borders that is far more reasonable that intervening in the affairs of nations everywhere as per US national security state custom.

Simply awarding the label Russian Citizens to one side in a civil war does not give part ownership of Georgia to Russia.

No it does not and Russia is not seeking independence for SO and has not recognized such. Since European elections monitors had a chance to observe the voting it is clear that SO wants independence from Georgia and Russia has every right to award citizenship to whoever it pleases in any country it pleases. If the US wanted to give 20 million Iraqi's the benefit of citizenship they could have but such steps were never forthcoming and Iraqi's still can't move in any numbers to the US. As expansionist imperialist nations go you currently have better odds for a fair deal with the Russians.

Russia has invaded a sovereign nation and is ignoring the cease fire it agreed too.

Russia, just like the US, have the power to do what it likes and the fact that it is even talking about cease fires to end the original Georgian aggression is a better deal than SH ever got before the US obliterated that countries civil infrastructure.

The concept that Russian Leaders and the US Government are in a conspiracy on this invasion of Georgia is probably the most outlandish bunch of crap I've ever seen on ATS.

I am sure there are plenty of conspiracies ( that's what aggressive wars are) and i have shared some of my ideas as to who had the most power to avoid this escalation.

Hating Bush is one thing, but this is proof of a total lapse in even the most basic ability to apply logic to a subject.

It's hard to hate the mentally handicapped so i don't. Either way in my experience you apply logic very loosely and only when it suits your bias.

Stellar

reply to post by TrueAmerican

The same day, the special envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Yury Popov, said direct Georgian-South Ossetian talks with Russian mediators were offered in the Joint Peacekeeping Forces' headquarters for August 7. However, Tskhinvali refused the offer

All I ask you to do is look at this from Georgia's point of view.

Perhaps this analogy makes my position clearer:

Imagine that Texas gets to the point where there are so many illegal Mexican aliens there that they foment violence, and demand that Texas become part of Mexico. Now imagine that Mexico comes to the United States and offers to mediate a compromise. Do you think the United States should accept this mediation, or do you think that they would? I think the answer would be "NO" in both cases.

Originally posted by Justice11
What part did I get wrong.
Russian troops killing civilians or looting homes and business?

Musslewhite, Wag the Dog? Please, the Soviets attacked on the opening day of the Chicom games 8-8-08.

The Georgians attacked but one can say that the Russian invaded Georgia.

The Russians used the games to cover their invasion, hell it took two days for the world to figure out which Georgia the Russians were attacking.

I suspect it only took two days for some and the Russians do not need to hide their moves with 'olympic games opening ceremonies. The Russians could have picked any day of the year but the Georgians had every reason to attempt some kind of surprise offensive.

Wag the dog, come on you can do better!

As far as the media or news coming out of South Ossetia or Georgia it's not really front page news here in the states because the Soviets won't allow independent news services in.

And that has stopped CNN and others from reporting known falsehoods how?

And the news crews that do get into the area are gunned down by Russian regular forces, such bravery shooting at unarmed media crews.

Love and Kisses
SIRR1

Should we start to discuss the deliberate targeting of critical foreign journalist by US forces in Iraq? Is there any difference between the policies beside for the fact that you consider all US invasions liberation efforts and all Russian invasions devilish plots to rape women, torture children and killing everyone when their done?

Russia aka the Soviet Union,has always been a bully and has been a police state since 1917 when the communists took power.

Yes, the so called 'communist' took power despite the best efforts of the united 'soviets'. Either way Imperial Russia was a police state before Lenin's gang took over.

In the 1930s Stalin purged his own military ranks of thousands if not millions of officers so as to make the military was not a threat to him.

Many officers were killed ( twenty odd thousand as i recall with only about ten thousand being actual army/navy/air force trained ) many , i suspect junior , officers were reinstated when the war broke out. The effect this had on the Soviet armed forces is mostly assumed to have been bad and when combined with the other factors, devastating.

Yes the we allied with Stalin during WW2 but after the cold war ended,is when many in the West found out the true extend of Stalin grip.

They knew of the atrocities long before world war two as that is when the vast majority of them happened. The west did not ally with Stalin because they liked him but because Hitler had turned on his western masters and won when his 'job' was to crush the Soviet Union.

The KGB was the intelligence arm of the Soviet Union.

The KGB were more akin to the FBI than to the CIA/NSA.

Putin used be KGB.Therefore anything that comes out of his mouth is bull# to us cold war warriors.

Well it's a good reason to suspicious but not enough reason to dismiss everything outright. That is how a fanatic's mind works so i would advise against doing that with yours.

So russia has a history of instilling terror and fear and silencing dissent political or otherwise.Russian mafioso gangs run South Ossetia and indeed Russia as well.

The US have a far worse record abroad and it happened far more recently than like actions the USSR's former leaders perpetrated against their OWN citizens. Either way you may not be so far from the truth with respect to who and what seems to be in control of Russia today.

Freedom is the right of all sentient beings on this world.Theres no twisting of words about it.We will not become a communist autocracy.We know the dangers of these Russians.

I agree that people should have those basics rights and that is why i have attempted to highlight the crimes of the west in the third and developing world in general. 'Communism' as represented by the USSR did comparatively very little damage to the world and what it did do was to develop Russia and occupied territories into nations with very high education standards as well as minimum standards of living that much of the rest of the third world could only have dreamt about. However many millions truly died in Stalin's crimes we will never know but what we do know is that many hundreds of millions died in the former imperial colonies while they were sucked dry of resources and skilled people with nothing but civil wars and destitution to show for it. It is a sad testament to Western foreign policy that even Stalin's brutality and mass executions never rivalled their excess and crimes against humanity.

Stellar

reply to post by StellarX

'Communism' as represented by the USSR did comparatively very little damage to the world and what it did do was to develop Russia and occupied territories into nations with very high education standards as well as minimum standards of living that much of the rest of the third world could only have dreamt about.

Wow! I have a big problem with THAT statement. If communism was so benevolent, why were people always trying to ESCAPE from communist countries? Why did the communists SHOOT those trying to escape, if it was such a paradise?

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
Wow! I have a big problem with THAT statement. If communism was so benevolent, why were people always trying to ESCAPE from communist countries?

Because a small percentage of each country have much to lose and everything to fear from those they used to exploit? Does the fact that nearly one million 'whites' have emigrated from South-Africa ( 15-20%) in the last 15 years prove that the ANC is 'evil' or bent on world domination? All it means is that these people believed that they could do better elsewhere or that they feared retribution for what they did in the past.

Why did the communists SHOOT those trying to escape, if it was such a paradise?

They didn't last i checked and tens or hundreds of thousands of Germans entered west Berlin and escaped from there before the wall was eventually built, 1961, to finally stop CIA terrorism in East Germany.

Barrier between East and West Germany

On 1 April, 1952, East German leaders met the Soviet leader Stalin in Moscow; during the discussions Stalin's foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov proposed that the East Germans should "introduce a system of passes for visits of West Berlin residents to the territory of East Berlin [so as to stop] free movement of Western agents" in the GDR. Stalin agreed, calling the situation "intolerable". He advised the East Germans to build up their border defenses, telling them that "The demarcation line between East and West Germany should be considered a border – and not just any border, but a dangerous one ... The Germans will guard the line of defense with their lives." [4]

Consequently, the border between East and West Germany was closed, and a barbed-wire fence erected. The border between East and West Berlin, however, remained open, although traffic between the Eastern and the Western sectors was somewhat restricted.

en.wikipedia.org...

If the USSR were so worried about shooting and generally killing those who wanted to leave they would have immediately erected barriers.

Stellar

reply to post by StellarX

Why did the communists SHOOT those trying to escape, if it was such a paradise?

They didn't last i checked and tens or hundreds of thousands of Germans entered west Berlin and escaped from there before the wall was eventually built, 1961, to finally stop CIA terrorism in East Germany.

Oh, really?

query.nytimes.com...

Sensitive to charges that crimes committed by the ousted East German Communist Government are going unpunished, German prosecutors have announced the arrests of four former border guards in the shooting of the last people who tried to flee before the Berlin Wall fell.

The guards, who were detained on Friday, are charged in the death of Chris Geoffroy, a 20-year old waiter, and the wounding of a companion, Christian Gaudian, who were fired upon as they tried to dash to West Berlin on the night of Feb. 6, 1989.

More than 260 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989. About three times that number were killed attempting to flee westward from elsewhere in East Germany.
....

(At the) trial of eight former East German generals, prosecutors produced the minutes from several meetings of the East German Defense Ministry's so-called "Collegiate" -- a group of military and security officials in charge of long-term planning. And prosecutors say that among those minutes was evidence of Defense Ministry Order 101: that "border violators should be destroyed and all attempts to breach the defenses should be prevented."

Originally posted by SIRR1


Information coming out of Georgia is heavly sensored by the Soviets and who in the hell are we to beleive, CNN or the Russians?

I will take CNN for now, at least they are not killing unarmed civilians!

You believe the Russians are doing this why? Oh yeah, because you are BEING TOLD THAT THEY ARE BY THE OBVIOUSLY CORRUPTED AND BIASED MEDIA!

Wake up dude. This is a joke. Just like your avatar. That clearly shows your lust for blood. You WANT Russia to be in the wrong here so we can start a third and fourth front for war. To you, life probably isn't worth living unless there is a major conflict going on somewhere where our American forces aren't involved.

It's a joke that you so blindly will follow a media source that has been proven to be liars over and over. We know for a fact that news agencies in other parts of the world have higher standards for reporting. IF they do not know it for fact they say so. Our media here in America pushes propoganda like it was crack. They get people addicted to lies and drama and keep feeding it to them.

You obviously are addicted to the lies and I feel for you. I hate to say it, but I remember seeing the 'foreign' media start to report on this conflict. It had come out like this "Georgia attacks S. Ossetia". Everyone was reporting it this way. Then our media comes along and says "Russia attacks Georgia for trying to keep S. Ossetia under their control".

If you can't see the spin then maybe you are caught up in the wash cycle and don't even know you are spinning.

We all need to wake up.

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
Why did the communists SHOOT those trying to escape, if it was such a paradise?
Oh, really?

Right. They shot many hundreds when the tried to sneak over a barrier with barbed wires and armed guards. As i may have forgotten to mention in this instance they did deport and shoot people for lesser crimes than trying to breach security barriers so my arguments were not meant to protect the non existent 'image' of the USSR but to point out that we at least attempt to be fair.

Stellar

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Hmmmmm...VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE!

reply to post by TrueAmerican


The problem isn't just CNN. Fox news was in that clip as well. American media, in every respect is owned by Corporate and Government interests. Do you notice how I listed Corporate first in that last sentence? The money controls the government, not vice versa. These lies that we are witnessing on the clips are in the interests of those who profit from them. Most of our presidents, vice presidents, Senators, etc...are major stakeholders in major corporations. I challenge you to type any of these people into your search engines, and somewhere along the line, they are heavy hitters for corporate interests. George Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, John Kerry...yada yada yada. Take every influential person involved with American Politics and google it. Wikipedia will direct you to real sources where this information can be found.

Most of you already know this, I am addressing those who still think there's a difference between American Media Outlets.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


I can't let this one go.

To accuse someone of treason because they don't agree with a media outlet is rather foolish.

Secondly, your OWN government trades with our supposed enemies daily. China? United Arab Emirates? Your own government used to sell Sadaam Hussein weapons and helped train Bin Laden against the Russians during the 80's. ( Iran Contra Affairs ) George Bush's grandfather Precott Bush was arrested and stripped of his fortune due to the fact that he was caught trading with our enemies. Which, consequently, is the reason why we developed the "Trading with the enemy Act," which still gets violated by our government daily.

So...if you're going to cry treason, maybe you should point the finger at the one's who are perpetrating it.

Originally posted by Jemison
Good find! I'm not a fan of CNN because I find it to be unapologetically biased and very liberal. I don't trust that they are reporting the news as it is - I believe they report events based on their spin of things.

I'll be interested to see how CNN tries to recreate reality to explain this situation they have created.

Jemison

i seem to recall watching cnn reporters tell me that mccain had given a much better speech than obama when i was watching in the build up to the elections- and they said how mccain was far more convincing, whilst failing to suggest how.

maybe they are biased towards liberals sometimes, but they are exceptionally biased towards republicans too sometimes