Commentary

The shamelessness of cable TV channels knows no bounds.

They know that explosions, fires, destruction, and particularly video of a firefight will keep eyeballs glued to the screen.

The Observer just witnessed on CNN, around 7;05-7:07 p.m. PDT (q10:05-10:07 EDT) gripping footage of a firefight in Ukraine, on Don Lemon’s program. Lemon presented the video without telling his audience what they were seeing, or what was the source of the video.

Listening to the audio accompanying the pictures it became clear that Russia was the source of the video, or at least it was shot by someone on the Russian side. One could hear clearly shouts of “Allahu Akbar” (God is the Greatest!) — الله أكبر –in Arabic when the soldiers were firing their weapons. The soldiers were either Syrians or Chechens fighting on the Russian side.

This an abominable low point in CNN journalism, and in Don Lemon’s career.

What the hell is CNN doing showing us Russian footage of a firefight, from the Russian point of view, without even telling us?

Television viewers who want to follow the Russian invasion and war in Ukraine, and the Russian atrocities, should take care not to watch such footage, and focus on the analytical content of the program–often reduced to 25% or less of the screen, while images of violence and destruction are presented on the other 75% of the screen.

Presumably these images are presented to retain the eyeballs of those uuninterested or unable to follow the intellectual content of the interview in the little box on the right.

CNN and Don Lemon must be called out for this abominable abuse of their viewers’ trust, and their continual manipulation of their viewers’ emotions–FOR PROFIT.

There are many obscenities in war, and in this war in particular.

It is terribly sad that Don Lemon and CNN are committing one of them.

The Trenchant Observer