CNN issued a glaring correction after the liberal network joined a chorus of news organizations that uncritically peddled a Hamas narrative about an explosion at a Gaza hospital.
Last week, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claimed that Israel bombed Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital through an airstrike that resulted in over 500 civilian casualties.
Subsequent reporting and intelligence found it was an explosion in the hospital's parking lot stemming from a misfired rocket fired by Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, resulting in a death toll a fraction of what Hamas had first alleged.
CNN initially ran the headline "Israel hits hospital and school in Gaza as blockade puts healthcare system in state of ‘collapse.’"
"A school and a hospital in Gaza were among the places lethally blasted by Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday as humanitarian concerns mount over ongoing deprivation of food, fuel and electricity to the isolated population," CNN reported. "The strike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza is likely to have killed hundreds, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement, adding that there are still many people under the hospital rubble."
The headline was later changed to "Hundreds likely dead in Gaza hospital blast, as Israeli blockade cripples medical response."
On Wednesday, however, CNN was forced to publish a correction in its report.
"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," CNN's correction read. "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."
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said he held private conversations with CNN and MSNBC about their slanted coverage of Israel after calling them out on their own airwaves.
"All of them need to do better. They need to do better because this isn't just about antisemitism, although it is. The carelessness with which they treat Jewish victims is crazy," Greenblatt told Fox News Digital. "This isn't just about Israel, although it is. Demonizing and dehumanizing Israelis and Zionists is how you get this kind of barbarism and these atrocities. This is about humanity."
The New York Times similarly published a lengthy editor's note admitting it relied "too heavily" on Hamas' word.
"Early versions of the coverage — and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels — relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified. The report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was," the Times acknowledged. "Given the sensitive nature of the news during a widening conflict, and the prominent promotion it received, Times editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation, and been more explicit about what information could be verified."
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