Colonel’s News Network

Worst journalistic effort from an established news source this year? It’s only November, but I’ll bet my fortune on CNN’s atrocious “documentary” on the Libyan Jihadi revisions. Surely, no one can hope to rival the scene where the correspondent, Nic Robertson, arrives to Abu Slim prison to find fifty or so political prisoners sitting around neat tables in the courtyard, dressed up for the occasion and sipping orange juice with their wives and kids, who then “spontaneously” start yelling slogans in support of Col. Qadhafi.

Robertson tells viewers that he apparently happened to arrive during a family visit, as the prisoners keep punching the air in support of the man who has kept them in torture dungeons for ten-twenty years. He’s very impressed: “It’s hard to imagine this is even a prison”, he says, awestruck by the effectiveness of Seif el-Islam el-Qadhafi’s rehabilitation scheme.

Yes, hard! Like how it’s hard to imagine you’re a journalist, Mr. Robertson.

See also: The Arabist