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In what appears to be one of the most ridiculous incidents in traditional vs. new media mentalities, the Senior Editor of CNN’s Middle East Affairs Octavia Nasr has been fired over a tweet she made last week.
The controversial tweet has been circulating the web for the past couple of days since Nasr tweeted her opinion of a late prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric (Octavia being a Lebanese American) in which stated:
“Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot #Lebanon”
We’re not going to get into a debate about the content of the tweet, Jillian C. York has done a wonderful job at that. But what does seem odd, is that a prominent news agency like CNN is willing to lose a 20 year CNN veteran over an opinion published out of context and in such short notice.
No one is defending Octavia’s opinion, but her right to state it should not be an exception.
The incident has started a tweet storm, so to speak, around the world and especially in the Middle East, where the Middle Eastern web icons have expressed their outrage. People including Samih Toukan (Founder of Maktoob.com and CEO of Jabbar Internet Group), Habib Haddad Founder/CEO of Yamli, and Mohamad Takriti CEO of iHorizons, the company developing most of AlJazeera’s online portal, have all voiced their disgust.
I wonder if they should fear for their jobs too after this, perhaps so should I?
This post kind of misses the point.
@OctaviaNasrCNN.
Note the “CNN”.
This same tweet, on Octavia Nasr’s own Twitter account, might not have been a problem. When it comes from an account linked to CNN, it’s equivalent to the news outlet expressing an opinion or taking sides, which, at CNN at least, is a no-no.
yeah, that’s a fair point.
When will people learn not to mix personal tweets/opinions/updates/pics on business accounts? The Internet is serious business.
You can legally say anything you want but it doesn’t mean that you can’t be fired over it. You’re always a representative of your company even when you aren’t on the clock.
If she wanted to say that, that’s her own business, but she shouldn’t have done it from a business account. Also, given her role in CNN she shouldn’t have said it in a public place. That kind of sentiment is likely to lose CNN viewers in the US if they didn’t take action against her.
pupuk organik : Excellent article. One of the best and most sober on this topic I’ve read.
Freedom of speach no longer exists in America when it comes to saying anything that is considered anti-Israel. Let’s not forget the monopoly of the media by Jews in the US. It’s time to stand up and boycott any media that restricts free speach.
While Hezbollah is a group that has anti-Israel intentions, I think the main problem here has nothing to do with Jews. It’s the idea of terrorism in general that Americans are very much against. The reaction would have been the same if she had mourned the passing of Osama bin Laden.
I understand that you’re trying to warp the story to fit your narrow world view, but try harder, in a way that makes sense.
Just as a disclaimer, I’m not some diehard Israel supporter, because I’m a realist. They make mistakes the same as everyone else does. Plus, they aren’t doing anything that almost every country in the world has done at some point in history. That doesn’t make it right, but you have to understand the bigger picture. Just because they’re Jews doesn’t make them evil.
“The reaction would have been the same if she had mourned the passing of Osama bin Laden.”
But it shouldn’t have been. Osama bin Laden and Sayyed Fadlallah are not synonymous. Al Qaeda and Hezbollah aren’t either. Americans, yourself included, are ignorant of these facts.
I’m quite aware that Hezbollah and Al Qaeda aren’t the same thing. Nice job trying to stereotype all Americans as being idiots and only making yourself look stupid. The point is that they’re both terrorist groups.
Nothing regarding freedom of speech has been violated here. Freedom of speech protects citizens from the government. If you say or do anything that may possibly negatively impact the company or contradict the company’s image, there is nothing wrong with firing the person.
Who Owns the Media in America? Not Us! ….we’re just owned by the Media!!!
CNN has never been about providing us with fair unbiased apolitical news, like that of the incomparable Master Edward R. Murrow was allowed to do in his day, reporting for CBS (that is now also been absorbed by Jewish ownership). But it was a truly international unbiased news agency back then. Murrow was great not only because of his presenting news in a courageous honest and unbiased way, but because the news agency he worked for allowed him to do so. He was no puppet and when he openly and preemptively went after Senator McCarthy (McCarthism = Zionism today) there was fear that he too was about to come under investigation for being a Communist. Here’s a little refresher course from this Master Journalist and we need another News Agency and Correspondent unafraid to deliver the truth like this today!!!
Listen to Edward R. Murrow’s Life by High School Students!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owt4WjUn9rg
That was during a time when honesty in reporting was considered a virtue. Before Zionism corrupted ownership of the Media Networks using America’s Media Masters of Us All Puppet’s Ownership? Read here:
http://www.stormfront.org/jewish/whorules.html
Why Americans Support Israel and Europeans Don’t:
http://cohenreport.blogspot.com/2006/04/why-is-america-more-zionist-than.html
Zionist Occupy America’s Media and Powers that be:
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-controlledpress-tvnetworks.html
“Good Night and Good Luck”
Are you sure she has been fired? She wrote an apology on CNN 2 days ago (http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/06/nasr-explains-controversial-tweet-on-lebanese-cleric/), the original tweet has been deleted and she was still tweeting yesterday.
weird, it does say on the NY Times that she’s been “dropped from her job” http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/cnn-drops-editor-after-hezbollah-comments/
She still has a full profile page at CNN too: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/06/nasr-explains-controversial-tweet-on-lebanese-cleric/
It says she is a 25 year veteran too instead of the 20 years mentioned here and in the NY Times blog. Did a search for her at CNN and no mention anywhere of her leaving CNN.
Sorry been offline since last night, we usually do our fact checking internally but since it’s out in the open you guys might wanna check this out:
1. The number of years she has been in the industry wasn’t a sure thing, so I went with the number of years she worked in CNN which is more relevant, and that started from 1990. See http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/nasr.octavia.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_Nasr
2. For news on whether or not she has been fired see Huffington post or http://www.mediaite.com/tv/breaking-cnns-octavia-nasr-leaving-network-after-controversial-tweet/ who covered it. You can also contact Octavia via @OctaviaNasrCNN, we’ve been following each other for a while now.
3. The apology didn’t make a difference.
Censorship is Censorship and freedom can not breathe within it’s environments. Controlled with strings like a puppet when doing our jobs never results in anything new, inspiring or enlightening. Our best and most enlightened information is delivered by those flying by the seat of their pants, with us trusting in their instincts and allowing them to be who they are!
Kill that spark of humanity in any of us….. and you kill the essence of life itself!
When corporate thugs and suits are allowed to keep us from expressing our personal opinions (even in our jobs)….. then our freedom too….. dies :-(
No freedom was violated here. Our freedoms of speech, press, religion, etc are protections from the government, not from other people.
If you walked around your office saying racist and homophobic things, don’t expect to be employed for very long.
They aren’t censoring her. She has every right to say what she wants, but it won’t be at CNN. She can blog, tweet, stand on a street corner and there’s nothing CNN or the police can do about it.
We live in an at-will work environment and Nasr was completely within her rights to voice her opinion, however disgusting and misinformed that opinion was, and CNN was completely within their rights to determine that Nasr’s ability to represent the company was breached and therefore untenable. The two positions are not in conflict with one another.
We have to get over this “it’s my right to do _____”, which is in very naive and simplistic response to issues that exist outside of the things we consider “rights”. I hear this all the time when it comes to employment, as in “it’s censorship” or “my free speech rights were violated” and it’s just not true. The Bill of Rights deals with the way government interacts with The People on such matters, it doesn’t concern itself with the private enterprise and employers can fire you or not hire you because you are loud and obnoxious, or don’t shower, or wear pink pants 3 sizes too small, or even in some cases because you are not of their religious preference.
If you have a job or simply want one then you should be careful about what you say publicly, which in the social network era amplifies much more than in the analog, because employers will judge your ability to do the job and represent them in the manner they expect. It doesn’t matter whether you have 20 years of experience or 20 minutes.
PS- the “tweet published out of context” angle on this story simply doesn’t hold water. It’s a tweet… there is no context.
And what if she had said…..Ariel Sharon is the greatest man on Earth.
Would CNN fire her ? Of course we all know the answer. No.
CNN and most US medias will never let one of their journalist talk against Israel of for one of his enemy. First Helen Thomas and now Nasr. Who’s next ?
Your commenters are sadly missing the point, which is that Octavia Nasr was not dealt with fairly because there are massive double standards in both American media and American policy toward what constitutes “terrorism.” It’s simple: Israel good, Muslims bad. Rabbi Meir Kahane good, Yasser Arafat terrorist.
Ridiculous. Thanks for linking to my blog post, though, you got me a ton of hits :)
no your missing the point…
havn’t you ever heard the term “Politicaly correct”? You would assume that someone working with CNN would be so.
Oh you mean Politically connected to CNN’s Zionist ownership? Yeah I get it you believe politically correct is doing what your owner tells you to do like a dog or kid. We don’t own our media companies, they own us and especially people like YOU… Lena!
Who are most of the Media Powers that be owned by? Jews own your movie companies, your Broadcast networks, your banks, your investment brokers and your congressmen and your Future! …but by the time YOU people figure that out, Zionist Israel will have your kids dying and fighting in another bogus war in the middle east!
i hope your happy with your choices of supporting the kind of Tyranny the Zionist Interest & powers within the Media and Israel represent!
Oh my god Kron due your homework! CNN is owned by AOL Time Warner and guess who’s got a big chunk of it?
Prince Alwaleed Ibn Talal the Saudi billionaire.
Now… being Politically Correct and working for the Media means you should not voice your personal views publicly if it will offend others.
Now…about doing what your owner tells you, my husband just happens to work for the largest Qatari Government owned company and he was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement and cannot even tell others whats going on in his office. Like it or not Companies have the right to force their employees to appear in their best interests. Thats life.
Media Baron Barry Levin is CEO of Time Warner and the head of each large media company in America in Jewish. We have as many Jews in America as are in Israel and we have switched the lead many times. Owning a small corporation is not the same as wielding the power of the CEO!
Say what you will about what you do on the job being the power. But controlling your life off the job here in America is considered slavery. She would have to be signed on an independent contractor agreement for CNN to avoid a wrongful firing lawsuit. You can not be fired here for what you do off the job, by the way. Unless there is some kind of stipulation put into the agreement when hired that waves these rights. Then you might as well be signing your life away and that of your family. Because even their actions can cause you to be fired!
America has always made it’s decisions in favor of Zionists over it’s own population and that’s an undeniable fact in both Gulf Wars. So I’ll leave you with this simple question, no one has answered yet as the reason we entered this last Gulf War. “Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction”? That is the reason given for going to war the last time!!! ^_* ….what will it be this time? Right! …. more weapons of mass destruction we won’t find in Iran!
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-controlledpress-tvnetworks.html
Old report, but it’s only gotten worse!
http://www.stormfront.org/jewish/whorules.html
Note: These are from “newsboy’s” comment above. I didn’t know it till I read it. But you live in a World of the many ruled by the few and that…. is not a democracy!!!
Glenn Britt is the current CEO. Gerald Levin is no more.