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| U.S. press Unequal coverage of Gulf States |
U.S. government/press shill for oppressive regimes, says U.S. journalist
Amber Lyon
Editing by Carolyn Bennett
Her passion, she says, is “exposing human rights violations
against protesters during revolutions.” Her
documentary “iRevolution”, examining social media’s critical role in galvanizing
revolutions and exposing human rights abuse in Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain, won
a 2012 New York Festivals International Television and Film Gold World Medal
Award and her a nomination for a Livingston Award for documentary.
Her work has covered violence against the defenseless and
includes a three-part series, “Battered Justice,” which shed light on the
judicial system’s response to domestic violence offenders. Another uncovered a
judge who illegally charged domestic violence victims who had tried to protect
their children from abusers. “Selling the Girl Next Door” was a one-hour
documentary resulting from her reporting and co-production focused on child sex
trafficking: the world of underage American girls caught up in the violent sex
trade. Another investigated the sex trafficking of domestic minors on the
online classified site, Craigslist (2010). Live from beneath the BP oil spill ─
she was the only reporter to broadcast while scuba diving in a HAZMAT suit ─ “to
connect viewers with what was happening beneath the BP disaster” (2010).
Amber Lyon
A native in her youth of St. Louis, Missouri, who took her
broadcast journalism credential at the University of Missouri School of
Journalism, Amber Lyon reports moving from Missouri to Arizona to Central
America to Bahrain and, after many awards and awards nominations and reporting briefly
for CNN, she still travels and dives and is now based in California, where she continues
to practice journalism, investigating ongoing cases of excessive use of police
force against journalists and protesters in the United States.
In an exclusive interview today with Press TV, Amber Lyon spoke
from Los Angeles, California, about biased U.S. press coverage of facts on the ground in Gulf States Bahrain,
Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia.
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| Iraq's neighbor demonized by United States |
The public in the United States, she said, “is constantly
being inundated with reports demonizing Iran… ─ it’s all over the nightly news,
in newspapers, blogs, and a variety of journalistic outlets.”
Having spoken with “several journalists and experts,” she
said they “feel we are being led into a potential conflict,” this time instead
of Iraq, Iran.
In its “demonizing of Iran,” she said, “the public is being
fed propaganda.
“You’re seeing other stories like Bahrain being covered up,”
which is also worrying because “the public is being fed propaganda to force approval
of “another conflict with Iran.”
There is an inequality in the coverage of Bahrain and Saudi
Arabia, Lyon said. “You are not seeing equal coverage of the horrific human
rights abuses in these countries.”
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| Bahrainis continue protesting authoritarian regime and crackdowns |
In 2011, Amber Lyon also took CNN International to task for censored
coverage of Bahrain. Quoting George Orwell, she said: “‘Journalism is
printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public
relations.’” But instead of doing this, she said ─
Instead of watchdogging governments around the
world, CNN International is earning money from them, producing what might as
well be called ‘infomercials-for-dictators’ ─ sponsored shows and content that
cast a positive light on some of the world’s most oppressive regimes.
“With vague disclosures, the news organization is defrauding
unsuspecting viewers and its own journalists who often risk their lives to
expose those same oppressive regimes.
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| Protests of monarchy in Saudi Arabia |
“The ‘Most Trusted Name in News’ must ultimately decide whether it
is in the business of government propaganda or journalism because, despite the
network’s claims of objectivity, I learned firsthand that CNN is having trouble
biting the hand that feeds it.”
Sources and notes
Amber Lyon, “three-time Emmy Award- winning journalist and
filmmaker obsessed with hackers, human and animal rights, and revolutions,” http://amberlyonlive.com/amber-lyon/
“Ex-CNN reporter: U.S. media forcing American public to
approve of war on Iran, October 8, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/08/265527/us-media-pushing-to-sell-war-on-iran/
“CNN’s Response to Censorship Allegations Misleading” (Amber
Lyon), 2011, published by Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1lxXzaxIu3h6nmJnit0oHb_LEVgOdfrypn_B0VDVm1cA
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