Outrage over CNN report on WikiLeaks video by Wolf Blitzer

See update (bellow)

CNN viewers around the world are shouting three words in unison:  "Shame on CNN!"  Yesterday, tracking the response of the media to the release of the WikiLeaks video, I blogged:

CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewed Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr about the video.  The network presented a short clip from the video.  Out of "respect for the families of the journalists killed" CNN does not show the Apache helicopter actually firing on the group of men.  What is really bizarre is that this CNN report makes no mention at all of the unconscionable attack on the rescue van which killed the rescuers and seriously injured two children.

I have been monitoring viewer comments left on the CNN webpage where a video of the Situation Room interview is posted.  Some 3,103 CNN viewers have commented.   The most "liked" comment was this one:

 jnberger What about the two kids that were in this van?!? Nice reporting CNN! And way to make it seem like this video was just leaked because they had it! The fact is that the military originally lied about what happened in 2007. Main stream media is the worst place for information. You're journalists for gods sake!  - 178 agree

Here is a selection of other most "liked" comments on CNN. Note that many readers agree with the following opinions:

olololwtf   Kind of an easy-going attitude from CNN regarding this video. Not anything about the gunner seeing the two children in the window of the van and eagerly requesting permission to fire upon the unarmed civilians that tried to safe someone's life and got murdered in the process. - 105 agree

PelleFisk You gotta be kidding?! You (CNN) can seriously make this report after watching them gun  down unarmed people trying to help wounded people? - 70 agree

Stevems:  CNN's selective editting of the video downplays the brutality of the event and the war crime of firing on wounded personnel. - 46 agree

ANO:  How nice of CNN to omit the most brutal parts when our blessed army finds an innocent girl wounded and just say "It's their fault for bringing their kids". I guess everyone in the world but us knows how brutal we are thanks to CNN and our media, check out the entire video at Al Jazeera English. -

Shephard:  video was highly edited and a shameful thing to do CNN. The truth needs to be told, you need to do your job as journalists. Remember your fellow journalists were killed.  You did not show the wounded people getting killed. You did not show how the soldier laughed of a child getting killed.  - 23 agree

3141592654 Shame on CNN for only reporting part of the story. Please watch the full video. I can buy the fact that the copter gun crew thought they saw a couple people carrying weapons. I've not been in combat so I can maybe even understand the decision to kill everyone in the group because a few people were seen carrying weapons. What I can't understand, however, is the fact that they later decided to shoot everyone in a van who drove up to help an injured man.... - 23 agree

svennebanan:  CNN why not show the whole clip, show it all like the do in Europe and the rest of the world, show the american public what soldiers they have representing them, or is it a little to much freedom for the public over there to handle? Show the whole sickening clip! Especially don't miss the part when they kill the children and laugh at it. Essence of the US army, in a nutshell. - 21 agree

magwheel: Why does CNN leave out the stuff that shows the Apache crews acted like trigger-happy assholes? For the sake of the victims' families? Only if you consider the cold-blooded killers to be the "victims." Their families, all of America, in fact, should be ashamed of what happened that day. - 17 agree

djschusta:  The crazy thing is that Faux news is reporting on this more openly and fairly than CNN. Just go over there and check it out. Shame on you CNN.   - 10 agree

In recognition of CNN for its reporting on the WikiLeaks video,  JOTMAN.COM has decided to award CNN its Fox News Award.*   This makes CNN the recipient of the award for an unprecedented second week in a row.

Let no one get the idea Jotman has anything in particular against CNN.  This blog strongly defended CNN on a past occasion when Jotman felt CNN was being attacked unfairly.  

I have posted the WikiLeaks video of the July 2007 Baghdad massacre here. 
____
*The Fox News Award is a feature at Jotman.com that began early 2008. It goes to a media organization that has gone the extra mile during the course of the week to make the public more stupid. (Otherwise corrupting the ethic of creativity and global citizenship.)  Some past winners. 
 ___
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Concerning the WikiLeaks video, on Tuesday CNN turned to different tactics -- just as troubling as what I report here.