CNN treats "spy dolphin" story as serious news. Reporter had worked for Carter Center and Amnesty.

From CNN:

Hamas believes it has captured Israel's most sophisticated new surveillance technology -- a dolphin spy. That's according to an article in the Palestinian daily al-Quds published Wednesday.

"Israel did not just stop at the bloody attacks against the Gaza Strip," the Arabic-language article reads, "Now it has recruited a watery pet, the dolphin, known for his friendship with humans, to use for operations to kill Qassam Brigade Naval Commandos."

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, which controls Gaza, refused to comment on the story to CNN on Thursday.

The article claims Qassam operatives on a training exercise along the beach confiscated camera equipment and spying devices mounted on the back of the dolphin.

"The Israeli security apparatus took advantage of dolphins' love for humans, and how the animals like to play with people on the water, or in the depths of the sea, to reach members of the Qassam's marine unit," the article read.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces contacted by CNN declined to comment on the report.

The story doesn't mention that Hamas also claims that the dolphin was carrying a device to shoot arrows at people.

It doesn't mention the long history of Arabs (and Muslims) claiming Israeli animal spies.

In other words - this reporter actually believes that the story is true.


Compare this CNN story with how it was covered in The Evening Standard, The Express, the Washington Post and others. All of them mentioned the previous absurd stories, although some did note that militaries have researched using dolphins for espionage. All of them treated this story as humorous.

Except for CNN.

Even Russia Today provided more context than CNN did.

Who is this reporter for CNN?

Salma Abdelaziz.

In 2008, she interned at The Carter Center.

In 2009, she interned at Amnesty International.

So she has been steeped in a culture of assuming the worst about Israel - and is so brainwashed that she believes this story and wrote it as straight news.

This is the quality of CNN's Middle East reporting.

We've seen similar quality in the past as CNN parroted other Arab propaganda as fact without doing the least amount of fact-checking.

Abdelaziz says she won a Peabody Award for news editing.

(h/t Ian)