CNN's Alibi Hasn't Seen the Raw Tape, and Won't Produce It

Today I contacted Paul Martin, the co-owner of World News and Features whom CNN cited in their claim that Ashraf Masharawi's video of his brother's death in a Gaza hospital emergency room as the result of being fired upon by an Israeli drone was indeed legitimate as shown, and not staged as many right of center bloggers have contended.

I asked Mr. Martin a series of questions about the video, including queries about the apparent inconsistencies in the timeline in various versions as told presented by CNN and Channel 4 as noted by Dan Riehl, and why the family was so adamant that an Israeli drone fired a missile that targeted the two boys playing on the rooftop. Did the family members directly witnessed a drone firing a missile, or did they hear the explosion, go to the roof, see a drone, and assume it was a drone that fired?

I also asked Martin, who is in the business of selling news footage, if CNN and Channel 4 were clients, and if so, if they purchased the edited versions of this Masharawi video, or if they purchased the raw footage to be made into a finished product by these news organizations.

Martin responded this evening via email that:

We plan to post the entire unedited videotape of the whole event, on our website, as soon as we can obtain the whole thing from Gaza... something which can happen when there is an end to hostilities.

There you have it, folks. CNN's alibi hasn't seen the unedited footage, and we can't expect to have them even attempt to provide it until the conflict is over.

Interesting, isn't it?

World News and Features claims to specialize in getting footage delivered from high-threat combat zones to the world's media organizations, and their ace videographer managed to get polished, edited footage of his brother's death in the hands of foreign media organizations within hours of the attack, but now they say we'll have to wait until the war is over to get the kind of raw footage that one would think is their bread-and-butter product.

Fishy?

You don't know the half of it...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:15 PM

Comments

1 By an amazing coincidence, Senator Chris Dodd said today that he would release his mortgage records detailing all the special deals he received from Countrywide before determining oversight policy on the same firm when "there is an end to financial industry concerns."

I'm glad we can all focus on the important things and leave trivial items like ethics and fraud aside.

Posted by: HatlessHessian at January 13, 2009 12:44 AM (3/V8w)

2 Who's betting that the raw footage gets accidentally destroyed in the conflict?

Posted by: sg at January 13, 2009 08:01 AM (GC9OO)

3 sg: I think you mean "accidentally", do you not?

Posted by: Stoutcat at January 13, 2009 08:43 AM (kKdtK)

4 How is it that Martin can get an edit from Gaza but not the original? I'll lay 10:1 odds that it's because of the evil Joooos.

Posted by: Pablo at January 13, 2009 08:47 AM (yTndK)

5 You mean this Shifa Hospital in Gaza?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054569.html

snip:
Hamas leaders hiding in basement of Israel-built hospital in Gaza
Senior Hamas officials in Gaza are hiding out in a "bunker" built by Israel, intelligence officials suspect: Many are believed to be in the basements of the Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City, which was refurbished during Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip.

Posted by: LH at January 13, 2009 09:11 AM (JV/az)

6 Now let me see if I understand this. It's easier for someone inside Gaza to edit down a video and send it out instead of just streaming the whole thing out in the first place to a facility with better editing equipment that has the additional advantage of not being in a war zone?

Posted by: Rob at January 13, 2009 09:17 AM (tWdSj)

7 Leave Martin alone. It takes time to make a sequel to a movie. It takes a lot more time to remake a movie. What takes the longest time is remaking a FAKED movie with missing parts filled in. They can't just shoot new stuff and put it in the original. They might have to do the whole thing all over again with the new script.

If they do, they have to make sure each actor says and acts just like they did the first time. There cold be many retakes. Nobody likes to see a movie that was just thrown together. Let Martin have all the time he needs to get his remade move just right. It will be worth the weight. I promise.

Posted by: Smorgasbord at January 13, 2009 06:32 PM (KFqCO)

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