Combat Disinformation

MediaMattersforAmerica: Tell CNN to get the facts right on Pelosi trip

For much of the past week, CNN and its White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux have offered a steady stream of inaccurate and incomplete coverage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) trip to the Middle East and her April 3 meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Please join Media Matters for America in demanding that CNN and Malveaux stop misinforming viewers about Pelosi's trip and present all the facts. CNN's contact information can be found in our "Take Action!" sidebar on the right.

Since April 2, Malveaux has wrongly and repeatedly claimed that Pelosi had no "standing" and was not acting in an "official capacity," has attacked the trip as "political theater" and a "political stunt," and has parroted the Bush administration's attacks on Pelosi for going to Syria while ignoring the fact that a Republican-led delegation met with Assad on April 1. Most recently, Malveaux asked whether Pelosi's trip was a "big wet kiss to President Al-Assad."

Other CNN personalities have joined in as well. Lou Dobbs devoted an entire segment to "Pelosi's bad trip," while the April 3 edition of Anderson Cooper 360 featured a segment on Pelosi's trip titled "Talking to Terrorists."

After several days of inaccurate, one-sided coverage, it's time to tell CNN enough is enough. It's time to take action.

Use the contact information in our "Take Action!" sidebar to contact CNN, Malveaux, and Dobbs -- and be sure to tell your friends.

Here's my email to CNN:

I am writing about Suzanne Malveaux's attacks on Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria. Speakers of the House have traveled and held meetings with foreign countries before (Gingrich, China 1997); Republicans have met with foreign leaders throughout our history (Hastert, Columbia, 1997). Incredibly, five Republican members of Congress have met with Syrian leaders this week (Robert Aderholt (R-Al), Frank Wolf (R-Va), David Hobson (R-Oh), Joseph Pitts (R-Pa), and Darryl Issa (R-Ca), yet you choose to characterize the meetings of the Democratic leader of the House as political theatre. I must confess, hearing this right-wing tripe causes me to reach for the remote and switch to MSNBC or C-Span where I might hear the news, not RNC talking points. Please stop politicizing your coverage and report the facts.