CNN Confirms It Was Misled By Man In Viral Syrian Prison Report

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cnn-syria-prisoner-clarissa-ward-mistake_n_676180cee4b0b7b778956e9b

30 comments

  1. Ahh CNN. There’s no better news source for aimlessly extending stories to cover 24 hours of airtime.

  2. Why don’t you post CNN’s own article about it, instead of an article about an article?

  3. Big surprise coming from a channel that labels everything: “Breaking News”

  4. Not mislead. Too profit-driven to confirm sources. The public isn’t that stupid. Yet.

  5. > The group also reported that Salama had been involved in numerous acts of violence and that he had been jailed for less than a month after a “dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer.”

    So he really was a prisoner in jail. It was everything else about him that was a lie. The CNN “rescue” video was extremely suspicious, but it was not a fabricated hoax. The prisoner tricked them.

  6. That network has fallen so far that it is amazing that people still watch it. Truly sad.

  8. CNN should have checked his story of course. Bad journalism.
    But small grapes compared to all the social media lies.

  9. I watched it on first airing and definitely was surprised how “well” he looked? Not sure who knew what, but that dude is scummy and shame on CNN for pushing out a story to tug at heart vs based in fact-finding/vetting

  10. This is what happens when the media attempts to become part of the story. Never a good look. Stick to reporting please.

  12. A lot of couch surfers talking trash here.

    That woman spends her life in war zones.

    Imagine you go into a country without law or government and after years of civil war. Then you go into a prison and find a person.

    Perhaps they should have questioned things hours or days later but in the moment you have no other option but to believe the person and get them water and medical treatment.

  13. Shame they fired all those investigative reporters, oh well back to Don Lemon talking about black holes magically appearing on earth to gobble up airplanes.

  14. The rebel fighters that were there were also duped by the guy but I get that doesn’t fit the “lol CNN” narrative.

  15. They lied about this, but those things that fly at night that look like airplanes, sound like airplanes, are lit in compliance with FAA rules on aircraft, and are descending in the vicinity of airports, are actually car-sized drones hovering over your house! No one knows what they are! More info after this commercial break …

  17. Justice will find him and deal with him in a fashion certainly well earned

  18. Watching it again, it really is an easy mistake.

    There was no reason to think he was hiding in plain sight, which was genius. Nobody was going to start grilling a seemingly traumatized prisoner.

    Dude knew he only needed to fool them for a few hours then he could escape before they figured out who he was.

    Only thing that I can see that gave him away was his overacting, which just looked like shock at first.

  19. So he faked being a prisoner to just walk out and disappear. Kinda brilliant.

  21. “identified him as Salama Mohammad Salama, an officer of the notorious Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate.”

    “Bond James Bond”

  22. This theatrical act was better than the green screen one

  23. Whatever. The smallest bit of actual investigation would have outed him, but that’s not what “journalists” do anymore.

  24. I mean, we all saw the video and know the entirety of their information. It should be on all of us too to take it with a grain of salt.

    They opened the cell door, saw the man, recorded his statement, then he was taken away by the Red Crescent.

    They didn’t make any claims beyond that really. Why so much bashing them? All their information was presented up front.

  25. CNN will spend 99% of their Syrian coverage on one American who is missing there and 1% on the Syrians themselves. BBC much better.

  26. It looked suspicious. He was a good actor for tricking everyone in the “rescue” though.

  29. it was fucking obvious , shittiest acting i ever saw

  30. Wow, I remember watching the video on YouTube and someone in the comment knew exactly who he was, where he lived, what he did and they were surprised CNN fell for it. Turns out they were absolutely right.

Comments are closed.