CNN editor responsible for Middle Eastern coverage, Octvia Nasr was fired after she tweeted her support for a late Lebanese cleric who is believed to be the inspiration to the Hezbollah movement. Nasr tweeted, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.. #Lebanon.” Fadlallah was an anti-American that was linked to bombings that took the lives of over 260 Americans. But what Nasr says she was referring to was his work in the Middle East disbanding “honor killing” of women and gaining the right for women to hit their husbands if attacked first. Nasr had worked for CNN for 20 years and occasionally had the opportunity to appear on air to discuss Middle Eastern news, but because of one overly simplistic tweet it was decided that Nasr’s position had been compromised and she had go.
In this case, Twitter was the absolute wrong place to share your opinion. The first reason why is because 140 characters was not enough space to explain what she meant and what she was referring to. The audience she tweeted to probably has no idea about the riddance “honor killing” or the new right for women to protect themselves in the Middle East. Anyone who would read that would automatically think about what the news portrays. She also hurt herself here with an extremely poor choice of words. By saying she “respect(s)” him people believed she was on his side not the American side, considering he was against Americans. Twitter is a vague platform. Only obvious statements should be posted. She tried to make people think about a complicated issue via a place designed for people not to have to think and that was her big mistake.
Do you think Nasr compromised her position?
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