CNN and Qatar Airways: Taking Fake News to New Heights

by Bruce Bawer • October 10, 2017 at 5:00 am

For many years, commercial time on CNN International has been filled largely with advertisements for the tourist boards and state-owned airlines of various Muslim countries. Given CNN's unusually friendly coverage of these countries, and its disinclination to mention Islam when covering such topics as jihadist terrorism and immigrant crime in Europe, it is hard not to view CNN's willingness to run these commercials with a jaundiced eye.

(Image source: Julian Herzog/Wikimedia Commons)

The TV commercial begins with a shot of the sky, above the clouds, and with the voice of a British male:

"The sky. There should be no borders up here. Only horizons. As an airline, we don't believe in boundaries. We believe in bringing people together."

We cut to pictures of people hugging at airports, showing affection for one another.

"The world's better that way. It is a right for all of us to go where we need to go. To feel the things we want to feel. To see the people we want to see."

A shot of an airplane, and views of the earth from the sky.

"That's why we'll continue to fly the skies. Providing you with everything we can. And treating everyone how they deserve to be treated. We do this because we know that travel goes beyond borders and prejudice."

Back to shot of people together, smiling, walking here and there, in the city and countryside.

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Viewing Enemy Regimes as They Are, Not as We Wish They Were

by Peter Huessy • October 10, 2017 at 4:00 am

Experience has shown that soft rhetoric and so-called "smart diplomacy" have served only to enable North Korea and Iran to produce more nuclear weapons and better ballistic missiles.
Not only has the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEAE) been prevented from monitoring Iranian compliance, but it is not pushing the issue for fear that "Washington would use an Iranian refusal as an excuse to abandon the JCPOA."

During his first press conference after taking office in January 1981, US President Ronald Reagan called détente a "one-way street that the Soviet Union has used to pursue its own aims." Echoing this remark while addressing reporters later the same day, Secretary of State Alexander Haig said that the Soviets were the source of much support for international terrorism, especially in Latin and Central America.

The following day, both Reagan and Haig were criticized for their remarks, with members of the media describing the president's words as "reminiscent of the chilliest days of the Cold War," and appalled that the administration's top diplomat was accusing the Russians of backing terrorist activities.

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Independence for Kurdistan

by John R. Bolton • October 10, 2017 at 3:00 am

Pictured: Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani speaks to the media at a press conference on September 24, 2017 in Erbil, Iraq. President Barzani announced that the referendum will go ahead as planned. The KRG held an independence referendum on September 25. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Iraqi Kurdistan's recent referendum on whether to declare independence from Baghdad garnered only slight attention in the U.S. Even the overwhelming vote (93 percent favored independence) and America's long involvement in the region did not make the story more prominent.

Nonetheless, we would be badly mistaken to underestimate its importance for U.S. policy throughout the Middle East.

Protecting American interests in that tumultuous region has never been easy. Not only does Iran's nuclear-weapons threat loom ever larger, but the struggle against terrorism, whether from Hezbollah, ISIS, al-Qaida or any number of new splinter groups, seems unending.

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