Transcript [00:00] Let's see how many creative ways Jeremy [00:02] Diamond can find to describe Hezbollah [00:04] today. [00:05] >> Israeli flags, military checkpoints, and [00:08] troops on patrol. But this isn't Israel. [00:11] It's a rare look at Southern Lebanon. [00:14] >> Okay, so Jeremy's in Southern Lebanon [00:16] embedded with the Lebanese army. But [00:17] you'd only know that from the caption [00:19] because on camera, he never says it [00:21] once. Usually when he goes on an embed [00:23] with the IDF, he makes it really clear [00:25] that he's there with them and that he's [00:27] taking everything they show him with a [00:29] grain of salt. Maybe we should have [00:31] brought a microscope cuz we didn't find [00:32] any of that critical thinking here. [00:34] >> We're really close to the Israeli border [00:36] now and this is all we're seeing, piles [00:38] of rubble one home after the other [00:40] completely destroyed. [00:41] >> Tell us what villages we're looking at, [00:43] Jeremy, cuz what I see is Hezbollah land [00:46] being targeted for housing terrorists [00:47] and weapons. Maybe show the Christian [00:49] villages that stayed untouched because [00:51] they, you guessed it, didn't do any [00:52] terrorism. Maybe also show the Israeli [00:55] towns on the border that have been [00:56] destroyed by the indiscriminate rocket [00:58] fire of said terrorist group. [01:00] >> Until recently, behind Israel's yellow [01:02] line, the Lebanese army is meant to keep [01:05] armed militants out. [01:06] >> The 2024 ceasefire was supposed to keep [01:09] Hezbollah's weapons out of the south in [01:11] the first place and it didn't happen. So [01:12] Israel drew its own line because [01:14] everyone else's job went undone. And [01:17] make no mistake, Hezbollah is the reason [01:19] for all of this. They're the ones who [01:20] keep sending drones and rockets, [01:22] stockpiling missiles, and rebuilding [01:23] ammunition. They're also the group [01:25] responsible for killing 12 children at a [01:27] soccer field in Majdal Shams. So if they [01:29] stop doing that, the strikes stop, too. [01:31] >> Soldiers now patrol the town, man [01:34] checkpoints at its entrances, and [01:36] monitor military activity from [01:38] observation posts like this one. [01:40] >> I am so glad that the soldiers are [01:42] manning the checkpoints now as if that's [01:44] not what they've been supposed to do [01:45] this entire time. Like someone was [01:48] supposed to keep Hezbollah's weapons out [01:49] of Southern Lebanon, but the Lebanese [01:51] army didn't do it and obviously neither [01:53] did UNIFIL who let Hezbollah build [01:55] tunnels and shoot rockets from right [01:57] next to their posts. So like Israel went [01:59] in and did it themselves not to grab [02:01] land but to literally just defend its [02:03] civilians. [02:04] >> Why is the Lebanese army not going and [02:05] kicking in doors and confiscating [02:07] weapons? [02:07] >> and using violence against our own [02:08] people it would be also with other [02:10] sequences. [02:11] >> Isn't it an army's whole job to protect [02:12] its civilians from like terrorism and [02:14] stuff like Hezbollah? So why aren't they [02:16] kicking in doors and removing the [02:18] threat? So if you're still here and [02:19] keeping track not one time does Jeremy [02:21] Diamond say the word terrorists in a [02:23] video about terrorists. Make Israel the [02:26] invader, ignore the terrorists, tell [02:27] half the story. That's the playbook [02:29] every outlet runs. This wasn't [02:31] journalism, it was a script.
CNN went to southern Lebanon to report on what’s happening there. But when Hezbollah is buried under euphemisms, viewers aren’t getting the full story.
The 2024 ceasefire was supposed to keep Hezbollah’s weapons out of the south. Instead, Hezbollah kept rearming, rebuilding and attacking Israel, while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL failed to remove the threat.
CNN still fell back on the same framing: Israel as the aggressor, with little explanation of the terror group that made these operations necessary in the first place. If you knew nothing about Hezbollah or southern Lebanon before watching, you’d walk away with the wrong impression.
Leave out the terrorists. Blame Israel. Call it journalism.
