from MintPress News:
A CNN report claiming to show one of its journalists freeing a Syrian detainee from a secret prison has been debunked as false. Far from an isolated incident, this report aligns with a broader pattern of fabricated news stories crafted to serve as cinematic propaganda in support of regime change.
On December 12, CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward appeared in a broadcast report focused on prisoners reportedly freed following the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The segment captured Ward and her crew filming the dramatic moment of a prisoner’s release. The footage showed the detainee lying under a blanket before raising his hands above his head as Ward approached.
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The dramatic report concluded with the freed prisoner gazing skyward in apparent awe before leaning forward to kiss the CNN reporter. However, skepticism about the authenticity of the story quickly emerged. Observers pointed to glaring inconsistencies and narrative holes, fueling speculation that the entire scene may have been staged.
An investigative report published by Verify-SY, a Syrian fact-checking platform, on December 15 substantiated the suspicions circulating on social media. The report revealed that the identity of the man featured in the broadcast had been misrepresented. Initially identified as Adel Ghurbal, it was later uncovered that his true name is Salama Mohammed Salama.
Not only was the man’s name misreported, but he was far from an ordinary civilian. Verify-SY uncovered that he was, in fact, an intelligence officer who had served as a first lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force under Bashar al-Assad’s government. The discrepancies in the report quickly gained wider attention, with France24’s True or Fake segment investigating the claims. In response, CNN defended the report’s authenticity but conceded that the prisoner’s identity might have been inaccurately portrayed.
Instead of issuing a formal apology for the flawed report—which sparked accusations that CNN had undermined genuine stories of recently released prisoners—the network chose to publish a piece that appeared to fact-check itself. In its self-assessment, CNN acknowledged the error in misidentifying Salama but maintained that no foul play had occurred.
However, a Kurdish activist on X (formerly Twitter) highlighted a critical inconsistency in the CNN report. The activist pointed out that the Syrian opposition had raided the Air Force intelligence prison two days before CNN’s arrival, freeing all its prisoners during a Facebook livestream of the event. “So for 2 days the cell was locked despite all other cells having been opened…?” the activist remarked, questioning the narrative’s plausibility. They also noted that the prisoner’s condition appeared inconsistent with that of other freed detainees.
This is not the first time CNN’s chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, has faced scrutiny for allegedly staging elements of her reports. In October 2023, Ward reported from a location near Gaza, where she was shown dramatically taking cover beside a road as a “massive barrage of rockets” was described as passing overhead.
Although a doctored version of the video featuring a fake voiceover circulated online, falsely portrayed as a leaked version of the report, the original broadcast still drew criticism for its seemingly staged nature. The way the scene was directed appeared overly dramatized, designed for maximum television impact. No evidence was presented to substantiate claims that there was rocket fire nearby, and no sirens were heard during the segment.
Another CNN report faced backlash in 2018 when journalist Arwa Damon was filmed sniffing a backpack for traces of chemicals at the site of an alleged sarin gas attack in Douma. Critics were quick to point out the implausibility of such an act, as exposure to sarin—a highly toxic nerve agent—could have caused severe illness or death.
While genuine accounts of prisoner liberations are often harrowing, they bore little resemblance to the narrative crafted in Clarissa Ward’s report. This tactic of amplifying specific stories while downplaying others has been a recurring theme in CNN’s coverage, most notably during the Gaza-Israel war.
In a particularly infamous instance, CNN’s Sara Sidner reported that Israeli babies had been beheaded in the Kibbutz of Kfar Aza—a claim that later unraveled. Sidner eventually issued an apology over the inaccuracy of her report.
On June 17, 2011, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly voiced her “concerns” over allegations that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s troops were using rape as a weapon of war. These claims were initially based on a report by none other than CNN’s Sara Sidner, who later retracted the story. Despite the retraction, the narrative gained traction after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, testified before the Security Council that Gaddafi was allegedly supplying his troops with Viagra to encourage mass rape. The dramatic nature of the accusations ensured they would remain in the public consciousness, even as subsequent investigations were debunking the claims.
In another example of CNN’s role in amplifying dubious narratives, the network contributed to the 2020 controversy surrounding alleged “bounties” paid to the Taliban for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. While most mainstream media outlets attributed the claims to Russian involvement, CNN ran a report citing two unnamed sources who alleged that Iran was behind the payments.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence, the story gained traction only for the narrative to unravel the following year. In 2021, the Biden administration acknowledged that the CIA intelligence underpinning these reports was “inconclusive.”
Even after retractions, such misinformation often persists in the public’s mind, leaving an enduring impact on what policies and wars they support. CNN’s consistent alignment of errors with U.S. government narratives raises questions about the systemic biases and editorial practices that enable such claims to gain traction in the first place.
