CNN aired a truly bizarre segment Wednesday that essentially amounted to North Korean propaganda.
The network sent reporter Will Ripley to Pyongyang to “interview” North Koreans about the regime’s latest missile launch that flew over Japan. The problem, of course, is that all the interviews were visibly staged and the regime is so oppressive that to think they’d get any response other than one of effusive praise of leader Kim Jong Un and his missile program is absurd.
Here’s a sample of what viewers heard from the segment:
-“I feel very proud of his brilliant achievement. Seeing the launch, I feel our military is improving. I feel very proud to be Korean.”
-“We’re simply acting in self-defense. We shot one yesterday, we can shoot one today. Maybe tomorrow we’ll shoot 10 more missiles. We have to do it to defend our country.”
-“With our army and the leadership of Kim Jong Un, we can conquer anything.”
Will said that “unsurprisingly,” everyone the network spoke with in North Korea was fully supportive of Kim Jong Un’s actions.
“They say launches like this won’t leave their country isolated or impoverished but in fact will make their country stronger. What else would they say,” he concluded.
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At the tail end of the segment Will said he’s been to the nation 14 times and has “never heard anyone openly criticize their authoritarian government—you can probably imagine why.”
OK, yes, obviously. So, why go?
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