Looks like the vaunted seven-second delay doesn’t work so well outside the studio — particularly if that “outside” is a war zone in northern Iraq.
CNN reporter Ivan Watson found that out the hard way Friday, after an impassioned Kurdish refugee used the F-word on live television while describing the brutal advance of jihadists from the Islamic State that forced him from his home.
Watson had found 22-year-old Andros, an English-speaking university student who fled with his family two days previously as the terrorists marched on their town. “Can you tell me what was the scene like when you ran away?” the reporter asked.
“I’m just too scared,” he said. “There was a fucking thousand cars –”
Watson immediately started and held up a hand. “Okay,” he said warningly.
“Sorry, a thousand cars,” said Andros, looking chagrined. “And my father drove the car for six hours — three hours in the dust, three hours on the road.”
“When we were in the dust we couldn’t see anything, just cars are running away,” he continued. “We didn’t know where we are going.”
Andros had some choice words for his pursuers, the jihadists of the Islamic State. “Those people are not people,” he said. “They are monsters … not monsters, monsters are better.”
He also said he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to go home, even with U.S. airstrikes. And he has had little time to adjust to his new life as a refugee.
“Too hungry, too scared,” he explained. “They took our home, our money, everything. Just scared and uh, nervous. I can’t tell a lot.”