Meet Amber Lyon: Former Reporter Exposes Massive Censorship at CNN

I saw first-hand that these regime claims were lies, and I couldn’t believe CNN was making me put what I knew to be government lies into my reporting.
– Amber Lyon

The Amber Lyon story is just the latest in a series of articles that expose the total Joseph Goebbels like censorship rampant in mainstream media today.  The first one I posted several weeks ago exposed how the NY Times basically just regurgitates whatever government officials tell them, while the other showcased how an NPR reporter covering D.C. had to leave and do her own thing out of frustration.  This is precisely why alternative media sites are taking off.  They provide the only outlets left for genuine journalism.

So back to Amber.  Back in March 2011, CNN sent a four person team to Bahrain to cover the Arab Spring.  Once there, the crew was the subject of extreme intimidation amongst other things, but they were able to record some fantastic footage.  As Glenn Greenwald of the UK’s Guardian writes in his blockbuster article from today:

In the segment, Lyon interviewed activists as they explicitly described their torture at the hands of government forces, while family members recounted their relatives’ abrupt disappearances. She spoke with government officials justifying the imprisonment of activists. And the segment featured harrowing video footage of regime forces shooting unarmed demonstrators, along with the mass arrests of peaceful protesters. In sum, the early 2011 CNN segment on Bahrain presented one of the starkest reports to date of the brutal repression embraced by the US-backed regime.

Despite these accolades, and despite the dangers their own journalists and their sources endured to produce it, CNN International (CNNi) never broadcast the documentary. Even in the face of numerous inquiries and complaints from their own employees inside CNN, it continued to refuse to broadcast the program or even provide any explanation for the decision. To date, this documentary has never aired on CNNi.

Having just returned from Bahrain, Lyon says she “saw first-hand that these regime claims were lies, and I couldn’t believe CNN was making me put what I knew to be government lies into my reporting.”

After Lyon’s crew returned from Bahrain, CNN had no correspondents regularly reporting on the escalating violence. In emails to her producers and executives, Lyon repeatedly asked to return to Bahrain. Her requests were denied, and she was never sent back. She thus resorted to improvising coverage by interviewing activists via Skype in an attempt, she said, “to keep Bahrain in the news”.

In March 2012, Lyon was laid off from CNN as part of an unrelated move by the network to outsource its investigative documentaries.

“At this point,” Lyon said, “I look at those payments as dirty money to stay silent. I got into journalism to expose, not help conceal, wrongdoing, and I’m not willing to keep quiet about this any longer, even if it means I’ll lose those payments.”

Amber Lyons, I salute you.

Please forward this post to everyone you know.  I for one want to live in a country with some real and free press.  Not some CIA propaganda arm that pretends to be a reliable source of news.

Read Greenwald’s excellent article here.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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35 thoughts on “Meet Amber Lyon: Former Reporter Exposes Massive Censorship at CNN”

  1. CNN is theatre. There is not a tidbit of real news there. Only morons (sheeple) watch CNN and believe it. I watch it for entertainment and to see what they want the sheeple to believe. Its a great source for sheeple programming.

    Reply
  2. I have been saying along time if government treat people in faraway
    Countries like Palistine and Bahrain like cattle to be slaughtered
    While ignored here in our country It’s like our country is not only
    Supporting the policy but wish to emulate it!
    There seems to be no empathy. One other thing for a country like Israel
    Whom suppose have endured such trauma in the holocaust have absolutely
    no compassion for another human being in the least boggles my imagination.
    Yeah I and a lot of others get only our news online that’s why CNN losing
    Money big time. Feel free to comment on my blog jonkirby2012.wordpress. com

    Reply
  3. Amber Lyon is a person of true convictions and needs to be emulated. Because of how her report was censored, as well as her being “laid off” (fired), unfortunately, She and Her report will probably be unsung. My question is, are there any copies of the report available that have leaked? Also, a personal request and view to Amber; “please be very careful during your daily routine, Ie. wear your seatbelt, be aware of your surroundings and so on. We really need people like you to live on. You have obviously been chosen to carry a torch. Thank You.”

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  4. There are two simulateous issues here:

    1) Amber Lyon has “spoken out”. Why? Sour grapes or because she is part of a sub-plot to legitimise a Wikileaks-style News Network as a “firewall for reason”.

    May sound good but I agree with Roi Tov that Assange is a CIA plant who I might add denies an “obvious Mossad backed operation” – 9-11. It is not “likely to be”; it stinks of Mossad, just as Oklahoma. Added to that Wikileaks rather supports the “power network” which suggests it is a political tool parading the “plausible” and certainly not anything close to the “truth”.

    2) As the Cooked News Network (CNN) is viewed as a ‘cartoon show’ by all serious thinkers, is Ms Lyons’ sordid confession actually going to effect change to the point the network could be taken seriously. I think not!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  5. And they wonder why we need people llke Assange and wikileak!!ll. Bravo for Amber Lynn and reporters like her!! I agree with “jimm” we need to be aware of our surroundings at all times…especially in the coming months ahead….it’s a vicious and evil world out there and the elitists and ” powers that be” will cut you down in a nanosecond! Use to watch Cnn but no longer watch it..tired of the lies they feed the public!! Only really liked the ” jack cafferty ” segment towards the end of my days listening to the rantings and untruths that were fed us!!

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  6. `Joseph Goebbels´ like censorship? You wish! It was Dr. Goebbels who admonished his co-workers NEVER to lie but to remember that ALL propaganda must be the truth. Contrariwise, the Jew Sefton Delmer told his co-workers at the BBC `Never lie carelessly´ and, if you want to leave because you find your work here odious, I don´t blame you. Gerry Frederics

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  7. thanx for your courage amber lyon….you have more supporters than you know….many of us are aware of the garbage that cnn puts out every day & just watch to know what the lies are! ….just wish more reporters would speak the truth loudly…because MANY of us know the truth of the stories you cited & have no respect or trust for cnn…are they still calling themselves the most trusted news network?..what a joke!…they really think all of us are stupid

    Reply
  8. Amber Lyons is a former disgruntled employ who practiced questionable journalism and whose supposed ‘investigative’ reporting did not pass muster with fact checkers at CNN.

    Reply

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