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CNN Finally Issues a Tepid Correction on False Gaza Bombing

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Oct 25, 2023
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

10.25.23

Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS

  • It went all so horribly last time, but sure, these new figures from the killers must be accurate!

Most pragmatic minds would think that after the media trainwreck that was the deplorable coverage of the Gaza hospital-bombing-that-wasn’t last week, the press would have learned to pump the brakes when it comes to claims from Hamas regarding death tolls in their region. As we see today, the news networks are not suffering from a glut of pragmatic thinkers.

In the last round of dubious death reporting, there was a stampede of news outlets rushing to tell us that overnight, Israel strikes in Gaza led to 700 deaths of Palestinians. Just the fact that another fat, round number was being reported could have been a sign that double-checking things was required, but also that this was based entirely and strictly on fed intel from Hamas is a sign of concern.

As you can see, this was not a concern for at least a dozen major news divisions.

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Pre-Written Field Reports – PBS NEWSHOUR

  • Israel’s lack of exact figures makes the exaggerated figures from Hamas acceptable?

On the program, they hosted Mark Regez, senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in one portion of the discussion, the Israeli official implored hostess Amna Nawaz to refrain from buying into those reported casualty figures from Hamas. The challenge was clearly being aimed at Israel on this matter, not the terror group that stormed into the country and butchered 1,400 citizens:

NAWAZ: As you know, the Gazan Health Ministry now says some 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last 17 days, including women and children. I just wonder how you square saying that you’re avoiding civilian casualties as much as you can and that number of 5,000.

REGEV: I don’t deny the fact that there have been Gazan civilians who have been killed in the crossfire between us and Hamas. But I would urge you please to be cautious with the numbers that come out of the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza.

It was rather clear that the Israeli official had to be the adult in the room, and Regez calmly laid out the reality:

REGEV: But what I would say is this, we are trying to make a maximum effort to avoid collateral damage. Hamas, unfortunately, has the opposite goal. And here is something that I think needs to be said, when we’re asking civilians to leave areas of expected heavy combat, Hamas is telling them to stay, and they must die for the crazy cause.

The thing to ask when seeing this exchange is when was the last time we saw our press grilling Hamas leaders or other Palestinians with this level of questioning? (Begins about the 4:30 mark.)

Presentation Paradox – CNN

  • When Oliver Darcy has the most bold statements at the network, you can sense the problem.

Among those outlets with horrendous reporting on the Gaza hospital story was CNN. It was rather notable because, unlike many others that were at least willing to mention the blaring headlines that came from Hamas intel, CNN just ran with definitive claims of Israeli culpability. By this week, the only outlets to make any reference to their fractured reporting has been The New York Times and the BBC. On Monday, Oliver Darcy was looking over the various sources that repeated the false claims yet never managed corrections, and to his credit, he was critical of his own network for never getting around to addressing its work:

CNN went even further. The story was later edited, but the error was never acknowledged in a correction or editors' note. While it is common for news outlets to update online stories as new information becomes available, when errors are made, standard practice is to acknowledge them in formal corrections. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment specifically on the online story when reached Monday. Like Reuters, CNN admitted no fault in its coverage of the blast.

Now, finally, CNN has…sort of admitted to some kind of fault…kind of? In a notably short correction at the end of its lengthy coverage that still attests to hundreds of Palestinians perishing (while reports later have pegged the figure as a few dozen at most), it does little to explain its severe error in the reporting:

CORRECTION: This article on the Gaza hospital blast initially did not clearly attribute claims about Israel’s responsibility to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza. Israel later said a “misfired” rocket by militant group Islamic Jihad caused the blast and produced evidence to support its claim. US President Joe Biden said the Israeli position is backed by US intelligence. CNN’s forensic analysis of images and videos suggests a rocket fired from within Gaza caused the blast, not an Israeli airstrike.

Note also that the forensic analysis the network had commissioned was performed last week and reported on by CNN on Sunday, meaning this was known for some time without any steps taken for days to rectify the reports. 

Both Kinds of Standards – MSNBC

  • So he found the bad totalitarian censorship and oppression.

On "Morning Joe," the namesake host was – get this – not making much sense in his diatribe against Donald Trump. The latest outburst concerned the former president delivering some praise toward Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban. What has Scar-Joe upset about this is Orban's track record of iron fist rule or something:

“It’s troubling to me he calls Orban one of the strongest leaders and says it in a wonderful way. this is a person who shut down all of his opponents, politically. He’s tapped reporters’ phones. He’s destroyed independent news agencies. He’s led phony tax investigations into reporters that were critical of him, chased them from the country.”

Now, for the record, no one here at RFTH is actually condoning such leadership. But what we want to note is that Scar-Joe is a very big fan of Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. You know, the man who has abolished elections, shuttered opposition news stations, and used the war to justify consolidating news broadcasts under a state-run entity.

Reporting on the Mirror – GANNET

Gannet is coming under fire from a news union that the publisher has been using artificial intelligence to generate product reviews on its USA Today-affiliated site Reviewed. 

In a thread on Xitter, the NewsGuild of New York listed off what it said were examples of reviews on the site that bore a similarity in content and framework that displayed AI-type of writing. In response, Gannet denied this tactic, saying the reviews came from third-party freelance writers, but it also took the familiar position whenever questionable content is flagged – stating the pieces did not meet the site’s editorial standards, and were (briefly) taken down.

"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage on the deeply flawed aspects of journalism in the nation, where Brad Slager looks to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.