The New York Times, on Saturday, carried a story about the mess a news agency can get into when it clashes with an Intelligence Service like Pakistan's ISI, known for its lack of subtly and friendship with the Taliban. (see Declan Walsh, Pakistan Suspends License of Leading News Channel).
Geo News, a popular CNN-like news channel, blamed ISI for a shooting attack on one of its reporters. The military puts some heat on cable tv operators to drop the station, which many of them did. Advertising revenue dropped off, four vehicles were burned in different cities, and a journalist was beaten up by someone calling him a "traitor". On Friday, the government suspended Geo's license for 15 days, and fined them $100,000. The current situation came from having a popular news anchor, Hamid Mir, beaten up. His relatives blamed ISI and their claims were broadcast on the network. The government of Pakistan sided with Geo.
If this happen in the U. S. it would be something like this:
The Director of National Intelligence is accused by CNN of having someone from Seal Team Six shoot at one of its reporters. Given the skill of this team, there is little doubt they did not intend to kill the guy, because they could easily have done it. The White House issues a statement critical of the DNI and backs up CNN's reporting, leaving everyone thinking the DNI is overreaching his authority by a good bit.
CNN starts talking to a Cuban news station, trying to get a peace initiative started.
NSA starts calling the advertisers for CNN, the cable operators like Verizon, COMCAST, and Time Warner, asking them to drop CNN. CNN has more news and less commercials, which is a positive.
Cars the CNN uses to beam back stories are burned in Atlanta, Baltimore, San Diego and Kansas City. One of CNN' s reporters is beaten up and threatened. Right after his news show is over, Jake Tapper is beaten up in the parking lot of CNN. Jake's mother, uncle and a first cousin from Toledo, are on air the next day blaming the DNI and every Intelligence outlet they can think of.
The White House praises Tapper as " a great American". The DNI says no comment, letting a representative of the FCC speak. The spokeswoman says the license of CNN is suspended for two weeks and they are fined a small amount. Many people switch over to MSNBC and Fox News, which no longer have representatives in the White House.
We take for granted that this kind of thing wouldn't, and couldn't happen in the U.S. but judging the rest of the world by your own standards isn't always a good idea. I thank
God for the difference. We have to wonder who is running Pakistan.
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