CNN Pats Self On Back For Not Giving Australia Hostage Terrorist Coverage During Wall-To-Wall Coverage

A hostage situation that developed in Sydney, Australia on Monday ended in gunfire after a 16-hour standoff that culminated in a joint SAS/police raid during which the hostage-taker and two others were killed. During the siege, national media organizations followed police requests not to release the name of the gunman, who was later identified as Man Haron Monis, a “self-styled sheikh” who was known to police as something of a political crank with a criminal history.

Monis took seventeen people hostage at a Lindt chocolate shop and cafe in Sydney Monday morning, armed with a shotgun and what he said were several bombs. Five of the hostages escaped a few hours later, and after more than 16 hours, the siege ended with Monis and two hostages dead, and the remainder of the hostages freed.

One of several 21st century subplots to emerge during this crisis, along with a hot social media angle and terror-gouging Uber drivers, was the media navel-gazing over how to cover events like these — navel-gazing which now occurs in real time. Monis released several videos of hostages relaying his demands for an ISIS flag and a conversation with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Again at the request of police, outlets such as CNN agreed not to play the videos as the crisis was still active, and the videos were removed from YouTube. The police requests for restraint led to the surreal spectacle of CNN counter-terrorism analyst Philip Mudd praising the network for it’s restraint in the middle of CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Australian Hostage Crisis…READ MORE 

Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2014 Liberaland