"CNN Headline News has reviewed the interview that Rudi Bakhtiar conducted on July 14 at 9:15 p.m. with Eli Pariser, national campaign director of Moveon.org and concluded that Ms. Bakhtiar conducted the interview appropriately.
Headline News does regret that when promoting the interview at 8:50 p.m., Ms. Bakhtiar incorrectly labeled the president's statement in his State of the Union address as a "slip of the tongue."
During the interview, Ms. Bakhtiar did not offer her own opinion, citing instead the assertions of Bush administration officials. At other times, she questioned and challenged Mr. Pariser's assertions. As a journalist, Ms. Bakhtiar's role is to examine all sides of an issue, not just give guests opportunity to offer their unchallenged opinions. Additionally, Mr. Pariser was given ample opportunity to answer her questions in full, and she was neither antagonistic nor critical in her tone or demeanor.
As a matter of record: The 3-minute and 21-second interview featured 27 seconds of Ms. Bakhtiar on screen alone; 40 seconds of Mr. Pariser on screen alone; 32 seconds of Ms. Bakhtiar and Mr. Pariser on split screen and 1 minute and 39 seconds of archival video clips. Airing archival footage is in keeping with the broadcast journalism practice of providing viewers with relevant video whenever possible.
Please see below for a transcript of the interview.
CNN Headline News Transcript
Monday, July 14
RB: That and some other claims made by President Bush about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction are now coming under fire in a new grassroots ad campaign today. Moveon.org and Win Without War Coalition launched a television spot accusing the president of misleading the nation to build support for Operation Iraqi Freedom. The groups are pressuring congress for an independent commission to investigate the president's claims. Here's a look at the new ad.
VIDEO:
Now there's evidence we were misled, and almost every day Americans are dying in Iraq. We need the truth, not a cover up.
RB: And joining me now to talk about the campaign is Eli Pariser, the national campaign director for moveon.org. Thank you so much joining us Eli.
ES: Thanks for having me
RB: Tell me what was the purpose of this ad?
ES: Basically we wanted to talk to the country and the president about this real gap between what the president said to back up the rush to war and the intelligence that we are now seeing which says something very different. And the problem is basically that the president hasn't been straight with us, the White House hasn't been straight with us, and we really need to know what the truth is and so we are calling on Congress to tell us.
RB: Well we just heard from Ari Fleisher who said that the line shouldn't have been in the speech. Dr. Condoleezza Rice says the whole thing is being blown out of proportion. Are you blowing it out of proportion? I mean the facts are still that Saddam Hussein was not a good person. He subjected his own people, the Iranian people to chemical weapons, and in a decade he attacked two different countries, Iran and Kuwait. He also led a very suppressed regime. Are you saying that none of those facts matter?
ES: I don't think this is about whether Saddam Hussein is a good guy or a bad guy. We know he was a bad guy, but the State Department knew that his claim was false, the CIA knew it was false, some of the British knew it was false, and yet he used it anyway. Why did the president mislead the American public in his State of the Union address? That's wrong and we need some real answers about it.
RB: You're talking about one fact, or are you talking about other facts?
ES: I think there is a pattern in practice here of misleading the public. This isn't just about the Niger claim, there are a number of other claims which have since shown to be inaccurate or just wrong, and until there is a real investigation by an independent party we won't know what's wrong. All we know right now is that the president hasn't been forthcoming, he hasn't been honest and we need to find out what happened.
RB: Okay. Obviously what makes America great is the freedom of speech factor, but do you also take into account that there are young U.S. troops who are putting there lives on the line out there who might feel betrayed by you and the statement you are making?
ES: I think on the petition we launched today we have actually heard from a number of people who are in military service they feel like this is a critical question to ask. They're being asked to put their lives on the line, and if they are being asked to do that for a lie, for a misstatement for a president who is misleading the country that's really wrong, and we need to know about it now.
RB: All right well we've run out of time, Eli Pariser, moveon.org, thank you so much for joining us this evening.
ES: Thanks for having me.
END OF INTERVIEW"
