***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
As NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham recently reported, CNN’s Erin Burnett conducted a sit-down interview with Iranian ambassador to the U.N., Majid Takht Ravanchi on Friday where she treated him to some slow-pitch softball questions. The network took a complete 180 on Sunday when State of the Union host Jake Tapper unloaded on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by grilling him on the airstrike that killed Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani, and acting skeptical about the need to take out the terrorist.
On Friday, Burnett appeared to comfort America’s enemy by flat-out refusing to question the Ambassador on the American contractor his country killed in Iraq and the assault they led on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Instead, she offered up these softballs (click “expand”):
BURNETT: With these sudden developments, obviously, the entire world is focused on this story. When you look at what happened here, was this a declaration of war?
(…)
BURNETT: So you say it is tantamount to opening a war against Iran. President Trump today said, his words, "We took action to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war." What do you say President Trump, Mr. Ambassador?
Compare that to Tapper kicking off the interview by insisting President Trump was intent on blowing up Iranian civilians when responding to possible Iranian retaliation:
JAKE TAPPER: Let’s start about this new threat from President Trump. Is the tweet accurate? Is the U.S. really prepared to hit non-military cultural targets in Iran, which would obviously, possibly result in civilian threats and almost certainly violate a U.N. resolution that the U.S. voted for in 2017.
(…)
TAPPER: Well, you’re saying two different things there, sir, with all due respect, because President Trump's threat on the Iranian cultural centers – or centers of interest to the Iranian culture would not be in accordance with international law, so which is it?
Tapper even refused to admit that the world was safer with Soleimani out of the picture. “Yet, you said that, quote, ‘the world is a much safer place today,’ unquote. Now, I can see you making the argument that the world would be safer in the long-term, but how could you say we’re safer today given the increased and heightened threat level,” he argued over semantics.
To point out the hypocrisy, CNN would certainly bash the administration as negligent if they didn’t advise caution with the obvious threats of retaliation coming from Iran.
(...)