The firing of Octavia Nasr last week was truly a sad day for democracy, free speech and America. It was alarming and absolutely nauseating, and it spoke to the power of the pro-Israeli lobby in the U.S.

It’s reprehensible that CNN would fire a 20-year employee for expressing some respect for Grand Ayatollah Sayed Mohamed Hussein Fadlallah, a man who spoke out against suicide bombing and used his influence to improve the position of women in his society.

His views about the rights of women in Islam were almost enlightened compared to his fellow clerics. His advocacy of asymmetrical warfare for Palestinian self-defense was hardly radical. It’s unfortunate that all members of a particular group are lumped together without consideration of their individual actions and ideals, lacking any nuanced understanding of positions and rationales.

We all know this would never happen to someone who expressed the same mixed feelings about the passing of Ariel Sharon, a known murderer of children and a terrorist. Will CNN fire anyone who speaks well of him in his death? I doubt it.

Moreover, last week President Obama welcomed Netanyahu to the White House, although some would argue that Netanyahu is a terrorist, war criminal and a threat to U.S. national interest in the Mideast — yet no one at CNN got fired for covering this scandalous exhibition.

How about CNN’s employment of Wolf Blitzer, a former AIPAC official who often covers Middle Eastern issues. And of course it’s perfectly fine for Ethan Bronner, whose son serves in the Israel Defense Forces, to be The New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief. No conflict there.

Free journalism can only exist without the fear of retaliation for the exercise of freedom to express one’s own opinion. Journalism would be better if journalists could just come clean and speak as full citizens with vested interests in the good of the society. Objectivity is a charade. I’d rather know the biases of my reporters and be able to evaluate their reporting accordingly rather than sifting through the pretense of neutrality.

Besides, even though I haven’t watched CNN for a while, I remember Octavia Nasr. She’s one of the few non-bubbleheads on TV news. I’d rather listen to her serious explanations of the Middle East than the empty banter of the pretty faces on the news-couch any day.

Nothing that Nasr said indicated that she couldn’t be professional, even in spite of her “respect” for a deceased cleric. The fact that a person voices sympathy for the death of someone does not mean that such person sympathizes with the deceased’s causes, tactics and ideologies.  We should stop only seeing in black and white and abandon the “Bushian philosophy” that if you “are not with us 100%, you are against us.”  The only error she committed in my judgment was to apologize for acting humanely.

What is so wrong with showing sympathy/empathy for any man’s death? Are we all not sinners — should we all not be condemned? Isn’t it that the best among us are those who are able to show compassion or sympathy for those with whom they may not agree? Or is there a reason we are trained to hate? But at whose cost and to whose benefit? Ask yourself CNN — who benefits from your hate, and who instills it in you? It seems like being human is out of style for you and your sponsors.

Thus, congratulations CNN on your spiral down the toilet of hack journalism and joining the ranks of Fox News. Now that Ms. Nasr is gone, maybe you should seal the deal by enticing some of those fine journalists from Fox News to join you since you are now in the same league.

What a shame! CNN has revealed its inherent biases and double-standards. It has shown the world that it’s not run like a journalistic entity striving for the greater good.  Instead, it is run like a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerates it’s comprised of. It is CNN’s credibility and independence that has been undermined, not Octavia Nasr’s. After this incident, CNN has lost the right to demand or even hint about “free speech.”

The writer is professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at The University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio.