CNN was showered with praise earlier this month after its chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward seemingly captured an incredible piece of on-the-ground reporting: the rescue of a prisoner who had been kept in one of Syria’s notorious prisons without food or water for four days.
CNN host Kaitlan Collins was awed by the “incredible” report, as was The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson, who described it as “one of the most extraordinary things you’ll see.”
“One of the most remarkable stories I have seen in a long time,” reacted Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin. “Kudos to @clarissaward and her team.”
Days later, however, the network confirmed what many of us had suspected from the start: that CNN had been manipulated into airing a false story.
In the video, Ward, her team, and an armed guard – a member of Syria’s new regime – could be seen taking a tour of the infamous prison, now empty following Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow just days prior. After looking around the now-abandoned rooms, Ward and her team stumble upon a locked cell.
“The guard makes us turn the camera off while he shoots the lock off the cell door,” Ward reports. Viewers never get to see the door being opened, with the video cutting straight to Ward, her team, and the guard entering the cell.
Suspiciously clean, and without any of the filth or waste usually present in footage of Syria’s notorious prison cells, only a motionless blanket in the corner of the room stands out.
Ward repeatedly calls out to see if anyone is underneath, but receives no reply. The guard then investigates, revealing a hidden prisoner, who is quickly on his feet and in conversation with Ward. Like the cell, the man is suspiciously clean and looks remarkably healthy – his hair and nails trimmed. He tells Ward he has been kept in the prison for three months, confined in his cell without food or water for at least four days.
Escorted out of his cell and into the sunlight, the prisoner gives an emotional story, breaking down and kissing both Ward and the guard repeatedly.
Asked by Anderson Cooper what was known “about this man and how he ended up in the prison,” Ward admitted, “Well, we don’t know that much because you can see from the report, Anderson, that he’s in a deep state of shock.”
It has since been revealed that the man’s story was a fabrication – his real identity, an Assad regime intelligence officer with “a reputation for extortion and harassment.”
It took CNN several days to confirm that they had been tricked by the man, but you didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to see the signs.
Throughout the report, a myriad of questions and red flags went unchallenged – skepticism perhaps blinded by an awesome scoop that, to many, seemed too good to be true.
Viewers immediately took to social media to ask the questions which went unanswered in CNN’s report.
After three months in prison, and four days without food or water, why did the prisoner look so healthy and clean? His cell and clothes in perfect condition? Why was he unable to hear the guard’s gunshots, or their calls from a just few feet away, but perfectly able to converse mere moments later?
The failure to ask these questions, or to employ skepticism, allowed CNN to be hijacked and turned into a vehicle for fake news.
Ward told CNN anchor Jake Tapper last week it was “very difficult to verify information in real time on the ground” after such an upheaval.
While this is true, and indeed reporting during the fog of war is no easy feat, Ward’s report was not live. It aired on CNN after going through editors and producers, who also failed to verify the information. And yet the information was seemingly not too difficult to verify after all. After the report received backlash on social media, it took only a few days to find out the prisoner’s real identity and background.
We know now – after a Syrian fact-checking outfit dug into CNN’s reporting – that Ward was deceived by the man in the cell. What we don’t know is why he lied, or where he is. CNN tried to track him down, but the mysterious prisoner has since gone missing.
CNN was prohibited from filming the guard as he shot his way into the cell and it was that same guard who made first contact with the prisoner. It is reasonable to presume that an armed soldier who participated in the overthrow of Assad’s government would be uncomfortably familiar with the dirty, emaciated, and scarred appearance of Assad’s prisoners, as well as the filthy conditions of their cells.
If it turns out CNN was not only deceived by the man in the cell, but also the guard, CNN may have been manipulated into taking part in a piece of propaganda staged by a group which remains designated a terrorist organization despite its efforts to appeal to the world since toppling Assad.
CNN said in a statement that its visit to the prison was unannounced. “No one other than the CNN team was aware of our plans to visit the prison building featured in our report that day,” the network said.
The rest of CNN’s statement defended its handling of the story:
The events transpired as they appear in our film. The decision to release the prisoner featured in our report was taken by the guard – a Syrian rebel. We reported the scene as it unfolded, including what the prisoner told us, with clear attribution. From the minute we witnessed this astonishing moment, we worked to investigate to gather more information on this prisoner. We have been transparent throughout the process and will continue to update audiences as reporting continues.
For a network which has prided itself on its fact-checking in recent years, little fact-checking seems to have been employed during this report – a problem made all the more frustrating by the fact that CNN has provided viewers with some of the best international news in the business.
As alternative media continues to rise, and mainstream news organizations are increasingly forced to make the case for their own existence, CNN’s viral prison break is a blow.
The greatest asset that news organizations like CNN possess is the man-power and infrastructure to get things right. Without this, it’s harder to make the case for why people should get their news from dedicated media organizations as they turn increasingly towards social networks like Facebook or X.
So, what will be the result of CNN’s blunder? Bad actors will undoubtedly be taking notes on how an international news network was manipulated. And trust in the media – already at an all-time low – will continue to sink even further.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
