Reporter Charlie Nash of Mediaite.com just released a thread on X tearing apart the now-viral video report of a CNN correspondent “rescuing” a Syrian prisoner.
First here’s the footage:
“My God, there is light!”: Emotional video shows CNN finding prisoner left for dead in Assad’s forced detention pic.twitter.com/3OvELIkTkD
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 11, 2024
"Syria is free."
— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) December 11, 2024
Extraordinary moment as @clarissaward and her team witness a Syrian prisoner freed from a secret prison in Damascus.
Left alone for days without food, water or light, the man was unaware Bashar al-Assad's regime had fallen. pic.twitter.com/ZAnGiBlLON
Now for Nash’s analysis.
In the video, Ward and CNN are led by an armed "guard". A member of the new Islamist regime, he takes CNN on a tour through the complex pic.twitter.com/tG6xJ78ENM
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
They soon stumble upon a locked cell – in a prison which has been completely emptied, the prisoners freed.
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
"The guard makes us turn the camera off while he shoots the lock off the cell door," Ward reports.
Viewers do not get to see the "guard" opening the door
After a fade to black, we see Ward and the camera crew enter the cell. From what we can see, the cell is clean. There is no waste. Only a blanket, which Ward repeatedly calls out to to see if anyone is underneath pic.twitter.com/n3modzHd2A
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
Receiving no response, the guard lifts the blanket, revealing a man who quickly gets up and raises his hands in the air. He looks healthy, his clothes clean, hair and nails trimmed. He says he has been in the cell for three months, without food/water for four days pic.twitter.com/n2dx2mh2Iu
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
Presumably, the man did not hear the guard shooting the lock off his door, or the camera crew calling out to him from a few feet away. But he appears to be in remarkably good condition. He is quickly on his feet and in conversation. He can hear the guard and the CNN crew
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
They escort the man outside, but instead of taking him straight to a hospital or doctor – the logical thing to do with a man who has been in a windowless cell for three months, without food & water for four days – they sit him in a chair and interview him pic.twitter.com/kDRAW4BKfW
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
Asked by Anderson Cooper what is known "about this man and how he ended up in the prison," Ward admits, "Well, we don’t know that much because you can see from the report, Anderson, that he’s in a deep state of shock."
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
Ward admits she knows nothing about the man or if his statements are true. Everything in the report is taken at face value, from the guard opening the door (they were not allowed to film) to the prisoner's claims
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 12, 2024
Critics online are also calling out the report.
What does CNN do w/this man they found who claims he was locked up for 3 months & has been without food and water for several days?
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 12, 2024
They find a chair and sit him down and immediately interview him outside from the jail
No taking him to a hospital — straight into an interview. pic.twitter.com/O1ewnCbNjs
So laughable. https://t.co/hcyf9D57s3
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) December 12, 2024
This is the most staged shit I've ever seen lmao https://t.co/Bjb4ePjWDh
— Punished Billy (@gigabilly) December 12, 2024
🇸🇾‼️🚨 CNN BS: The manicured nails of a man who was in a Syrian dungeon without light for 3 months … until CNN rescued him. pic.twitter.com/d7DZEvlHam
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) December 12, 2024
Based on telegram videos, I was completely convinced that Assad was running a brutal torture gulag. Now I'm not so sure. https://t.co/mdlgzUdCnO
— Second City Bureaucrat (@CityBureaucrat) December 12, 2024
Wait that’s the same journalist who faked herself being in danger from Khamas rockets?? Lmfaooo girl give it up already pic.twitter.com/CWXuNhxZsx
— Hadi (@HadiNasrallah) December 12, 2024
If Ward looks familiar, that’s because we’ve all seen her before..
Not her first time either ! pic.twitter.com/rEfZRMRQmc
— Y a s m i n e B u r a i k (@burayw0a) December 12, 2024