Michael Oren to CNN, Making the Lopsided Worse

The Jerusalem Post has this item. Michael Oren, the former American who renounced his citizenship to represent the State of Israel as its Ambassador to Washington, is now joining CNN as an analyst and contributor. His tenure as ambassador ended this fall after having served 4 years. More from the Jerusalem Post:

Oren, who now lives in Tel Aviv, told the Jerusalem Post that he saw the position as an opportunity to give "balanced but insightful commentary on pressing Israeli and Middle East issues." He said that what made CNN attractive was that it not only has a large domestic US audience, but has a strong an international reach as well. "In terms of getting the message across, it is quite a large and diverse audience," he said.

Balanced? Please. Oren is a former official representative of Israel and in his writings since leaving the Embassy has continued to voice pro-Israel messaging. No doubt he will continue to do so on CNN. So who exactly would he balance out?

In 2012, I did an analysis of CNN coverage of Israel's week long bombardment campaign of Gaza. Israeli official spokespeople were interviewed more than twice as often as Palestinian official spokespeople. I'd encourage you to read that entire post for more.

And can you guess who was the most often occurring guest during that period? Michael Oren.

This travesty parading as journalism, is CNN.

Here is an example of some of Ambassador Oren's "insightful commentary" on 60 Minutes (about 11 minutes in)

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