It has been nearly a week since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, ending some 50 years of brutal dictatorship. After more than a decade of civil war in the country, the collapse of the Assad government was swift as Islamist rebels took control. In the process, the brutal detention facilities Assad used to hold, torture, and kill rebel prisoners have been emptied.
CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward is one of the American journalists who has been reporting from the ground in Syria. She made international headlines earlier this week when her team seemingly captured the moment a prisoner was found locked inside a jail cell.
It was something extraordinary to witness, but it has also raised the eyebrows of some viewers who questioned whether Ward was misled. On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Hugh Hewitt, host of The Hugh Hewitt Show, to discuss the reporting and the problems journalists face covering these kinds of stories.
The Report
Ward and her team, which included armed escorts from the rebel faction, were touring a prison complex on Wednesday in search of missing American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 and has yet to be found.
In a piece that aired on CNN late Wednesday (you can watch it here), Ward’s group was seen searching for evidence of Tice when they came across a locked cell in a secret prison that she said was “tasked with surveillance, arrest, and killing” of Assad’s critics. “The guard makes us turn the camera off while he shoots the lock off the cell door,” Ward reported, as gunshots rang out.
Once inside, the camera pans to a blanket on the floor. They called out, “Is there someone there? Is someone there?” to no response. The armed escort then lifted the blanket to reveal a man underneath. He rose up with his hands in the air, and Ward reported the man claimed he had “been in the cell for three months.” He also told her he had been alone “with no food or water” for at least four days.
Ward told the apparent prisoner “you’re okay, you’re okay” as he drank water. They then took him outside and sat him down in a chair for an interview. CNN anchor Jake Tapper introduced the report by saying that the prisoner had no idea Assad’s regime had fallen.
Eventually, the man was reportedly brought to a hospital but little else is known. To that point, Anderson Cooper asked Ward on air, “What more do you know about this man and how he ended up in the prison?” She replied, “Well, we don’t know that much because you can see from the report, Anderson, that he’s in a deep state of shock, and honestly, I don’t think he understands why he was taken.”
The Skepticism
Ward posted on X that, “in nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed,” and video of the discovery quickly went viral on social media. The report received plaudits from others in the media, but there have also been skeptics. “Some people are raising questions about whether [Ward] was misled,” Megyn noted. “Some have suggested she may have been part of the misleading. I doubt that.”
Mediaite was one of the outlets that covered the report with caution, and Mediaite reporter Charlie Nash was among those who voiced skepticism in a thread on X. Calling it an “extremely bizarre video,” Nash said the reporting raises a “huge number of questions.”
Those included the state of the alleged prisoner. “Presumably, the man did not hear the guard shooting the lock off his door, or the camera crew calling out to him from a few feet away,” Nash tweeted. “But he appears to be in remarkably good condition. He is quickly on his feet and in conversation. He can hear the guard and the CNN crew.”
Nash also took issue with the fact that the man was not immediately taken to receive medical care – something he called “the logical thing to do with a man who has been in a windowless cell for three months” and “without food [and] water for four days.”
Other commenters have pointed out how well-kept the prison cell looked compared to the trash-strewn scenes that have been discovered at other facilities. Some also wondered how the man himself looked so clean and healthy despite several months in captivity.
Hewitt said these are all questions that should have been raised internally at CNN before the report was aired. “It is either a great scoop or a great punk,” he said. “What I am most suspicious of is three months in an Assad prison, you would expect manifestations of cruelty, not merely being hungry and thirsty.”
Was Ward Duped?
What journalists and news organizations have to be mindful of in situations like this, Megyn said, is that there are those who are looking to mislead. “I doubt Clarissa Ward, who is a respected reporter, would stage this whole thing, but I do think there’s a possibility she and the other media celebrating this moment are not being skeptical enough about it being staged for her,” she explained. “The thing you have to think about in this kind of situation is being used and being turned into journalistic propaganda.”
So, while Megyn admitted she doesn’t know what is true here, she said CNN viewers deserve answers. “I think that there should be an investigation by CNN, just to make sure they have not been used by an organization trying to look like heroes – notwithstanding their own controversial behaviors,” she said. “I would like to hear more.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Hewitt by tuning in to episode 964 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.