CNN confirmed on Monday it was duped by Syrian Air Force intelligence officer Salama Mohammad Salama, who posed as a hapless civilian prisoner named “Adel Ghurbal” so CNN could free him on-camera.
The ratings-challenged network desperately pushed the video as a viral sensation, only to find itself with a journalistic disaster on its hands.
CNN conceded it had been duped the day after an independent Syrian news network called Verify-Sy identified Salama. Verify-Sy castigated CNN for abandoning good journalistic practices in its mad rush to create an “extraordinary” viral video.
Many other online critics noted that CNN missed some very obvious signs that “Adel Ghurbal’s” story did not add up, including the simple fact that he looked amazingly robust and well-groomed for a man who had supposedly been imprisoned without food and water for three days and held…
