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Low Octane Gas Lighting – CNN

Pretty much what most people assumed, to be honest.

Pretty much what most people assumed, to be honest.

After facing his share of criticism over doing the bidding of the Iranian leadership when he was being allowed to broadcast from within the country, CNN correspondent Fred Pleitgen insisted he was permitted to report on his own free will. He said the only influence he received was being given an official interpreter while in the country. He did, in one post-trip interview, admit there had been portions of the country he was instructed to avoid. 

But this has been effectively exposed as a fraudulent claim, as one PBS reporter gave his account of a similar permitted trip last year.

After the midnight Hammer mission, Sebastian Walker was allowed into Iran, and he stated that he, too, had been provided a state-backed interpreter and asserted that this individual was directing his activities.

It's very challenging to work as a journalist on the ground in Iran. There are a lot of limitations. You're constantly, you know, accompanied by government-affiliated translators who essentially act as minders. So it's often hard to........

© Townhall