Liberal Former NBC Staffer Critiques CNN's 'God's Warriors'

Glancing over blogs that have written on the CNN "God's Warriors" miniseries, I came across a critical entry by liberal activist Sharon Cobb, formerly a contributor to the "NBC Nightly News."

While Cobb professes immense respect for CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, she's not well-pleased with the jet-setting journalist's latest special. Cobb is particularly chagrined with how Amanpour's special seems to treat Judaism. Here are the first few grafs of her August 22 blog post (emphasis mine):

Let me say right off the bat, I think Christiane Amanpour is the best International reporter in the world. As a journalist, I am in awe of her, and she has the guts of ten warriors. However, she is not known for being completely fair in her coverage of Israel, and unfortunately, last night was no exception.

In a three part series called 'God's Warriors,' Amanpour examines the extremists in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This in itself is a flawed concept because the extremists in Judaism and Christianity are widely condemned within the Jewish and Christian communities, and acts of terror by Jews and Christians are almost non existent. It is Muslim extremists who are the threat to the world, not the (relatively) few wackos in Judaism and Christianity. Therefore, any comparison between the three religions' right wingers is flawed from the beginning.

Amanpour's analysis seriously lacked context as well. For the casual viewer, or even a viewer more involved in world affairs, he/she could have easily thought what was shown last night represented the majority of Jews and Israelis. Orthodox Jews only make up about 10 percent of the Jewish population, and ultra Orthodox extremists are relatively rare. And even among the ultra Orthodox, I am not familiar with any who think killing an innocent person is justified.

While Amanpour managed to find a handful of despicable hate mongers who condoned killing of Arabs, she omitted that Judaism itself, beit Orthodox, Conservative or Reform, is based on a culture of life. Indeed, there is no greater mitzvah (good deed) in Judaism than saving a life.

To say that the few Jewish wackos she interviewed who thought killing an innocent Arab was okay--to even imply that that represented Judaism, is tantamount to saying Charles Manson represents all white males.

Check here for more NewsBusters coverage of Christiane Amanpour's biased reporting.

Cobb's criticism is interesting as she is far from a conservative flame-thrower. For example, the former MSNBC online contributor is listed as a "trainer" for the liberal Nashville Peace and Justice Center (NPJC):

Sharon Cobb is an independent filmmaker and community organizer on health care issues. She has an extensive background in journalism as Southeast correspondent for MSNBC online and former contributor to NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Trainer Expertise: Working with the Media

NPJC's current projects include fighting to preserve Tennessee's socialized medicine program, TennCare, and calling for withdrawing troops from Iraq.