Did CNN’s Clarissa Ward Help Release a Syrian Prisoner?
“It’s only a conspiracy theory now, but with the right marketing it could become a widely held belief.”
A line from a New Yorker magazine cartoon that perfectly describes the media ethics question of the week: Did CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward stage coverage in Damascus of “discovering” and freeing a man at the air force intelligence headquarters prison run by the ousted Syrian Assad regime?
“In nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed,” tweeted Ward. To which Aamer Rahman @aamer_rahman replied: “Funny how ‘the most extraordinary moments’ keep happening to the same white woman at CNN.”
CNN described Ward’s coverage as such: “While searching a secretive prison in the belly of the Assad regime’s legacy of torture for American journalist Austin Tice, CNN’s Clarissa Ward made a startling discovery when a rebel fighter uncovered a hidden prisoner still unaware of Assad’s ouster.”
The must-watch report has raised more questions and eyebrows than it has answered, although it was also praised by certain viewers.
“Syrian former detainee notes inconsistencies: communal cells were not used for individual prisoners, the cell appears unusually clean, and the prisoner’s energy level seems inconsistent with claimed 5-day water deprivation,” was one comment in the readers added context on X/Twitter.
What’s most disturbing is that the footage comes across as having been staged, and rather amateurishly.
Viewers and social media denizens rightly asked: Are Ward and CNN so desperate for ratings, viewers and clicks they put on such a shoddy show?
“Many of my colleagues arrived in Syria before Clarissa. It is saturated with journalists right now. There’s nothing exclusive about her visit,” wrote Beirut-based photographer Courtney Bonneau @cbeaunneauimages.
Charlie Nash, media reporter for Mediaite, provided a thread of insightful posts on X/Twitter. I’ve strung them together here.
Taking a look at the extremely bizarre video of CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward supposedly rescuing a Syrian prisoner, and the huge number of questions it raises:
In the video, Ward and CNN are led by an armed “guard”. A member of the new Islamist regime, he takes CNN on a tour of the complex. They soon stumble upon a locked cell — in a prison which has been completely emptied, the prisoners freed. “The guard makes us turn off the camera while he shoots the lock off the cell door,” Ward reports. Viewers do not get to see the guard “opening” the door. After a fade to black, we see Ward and the camera crew enter the cell. From what we can see, the cell is clean. There is no waste. Only a blanket, which Ward repeatedly calls out to see if anyone is underneath. Receiving no response, the guard lifts the blanket, revealing a man who quickly gets up and raises his hands in the air. He looks healthy, his clothes clean, hair and nails trimmed. He says he has been in the cell for three months, without food/water for four days. Presumably, the man did not hear the guard shooting the lock off his door, or the camera crew calling out to him from a few feet away. But he appears to be in remarkably good condition. He is quickly on his feet and in conversation. He can hear the guard and the CNN crew. They escort the man outside, but instead of taking him straight to a hospital or doctor — the logical thing to do with a man who’s been in a windowless cell for three moths, without food & water for four days — they sit him in a chair and interview him. Asked by Anderson Cooper what is known “about this man and how he ended up in the prison,” Ward admits, “Well, we don’t know that much because you can see from the report, Anderson, that he is in a deep state of shock.” Ward admits she knows nothing about the man or if his statements are true. Everything about the report is taken at face value, from the guard opening the door (they are not allowed to film) to the prisoner’s claims.
I saw the report promoted and posted several times as a non-pareil exclusive on X by CNN anchor Julia Chatterley, CNN’s PR department and CNN’s Arabic service.
A scoop to beat coverage by scores of regional and international journalists who’d descended on Syria to cover the overthrow of the brutal Assad dynasty and its horrific detention facilities where thousands of Syrians and foreigners were incarcerated, tortured and killed over the decades.
But the alerts and comments didn’t stop cascading on X/Twitter:
The man is well groomed, dressed, fed, and looked fine at the beginning and didn’t start shaking until later in the film — Radwan @rdabaja.
He had been without food or water for days, unattended, and there was no poop anywhere? He had a clean blanket on a tidy floor and did not hear them shooting the lock off the door? Yeah right🤣🤣🤣 — Ann Batiza @AnnBatiza
CNN BS: The manicured nails of a man who was in a Syrian dungeon without light for 3 months… until CNN rescued him — Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo.
I’m Syrian. I’m a journalist. I’m against Assad regime. I have been to one of Assad’s horrible detention centres. Many of my friends and relative have been detained. I think I can say that this video is suspicious and may be staged — Malath Alzoubi @MalathAlzoubi.
Several tweeps also wondered how come the prisoner didn’t squint in the light if he’d been locked up in a dark cell for so long and suggested CNN fact check Ward’s story.
According to Manish Kapoor @_manishkapoor, “Clarissa has regrettably been prone to pulling off such gimmicks, in the past too. But becoming the “next” Christiane Amanpour, requires better acting chops, than she’s capable of. This event needs to be investigated by CNN’s internal ethics team, and some independent journalistic ombudsman as well.”
Geopolitical analyst and journalist Patrick Henningsen took a swipe by asking why Ward, whose professional profile says she speaks Arabic, addressed the prisoner in English.
Sarah Dadouch, a Syrian journalist reporting for the Financial Times and a former correspondent for The Washington Post and Reuters, tweeted these insightful remarks:
“A reminder to foreign journalists descending on Damascus: prisoners are human beings who deserve dignity and should not be treated recklessly or used as pathways for clicks. Please treat people with the dignity that they’ve been deprived of for decades. For most Syrians you’re speaking to, this is the first instance they’ve been exposed to Western journalists. There is already deep mistrust in these institutions — more of a reason to deploy tact and sensitivity when approaching civilians.”
Touché!
It’s a very troubling issue for those of us who’ve been foreign correspondents and who’ve later turned our attention to teaching and training journalists on how to practice the profession we love according to the highest ethical standards.
I found this X/Twitter contribution very appropriate: “When you realize that the two most profitable businesses are war and illness, it’s easy to understand what’s going on.”
The person who posted it forgot to mention what role media play in promoting those businesses.