When CNN came under new leadership last year, the message to the public was that the network wanted to “rebuild trust as a non-partisan news brand.” At the time, David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, spoke proudly of his vision of CNN’s journalism “doing what journalists do best, which is to fight to tell the truth…” Unfortunately, some at CNN seem to be fighting something else – accountability for shoddy reporting.
Take, for example, CNN’s silence over an overtly antisemitic cartoon that remains on its website despite numerous emails, phone calls, and social media posts directed at the network. There have also been articles in both Jewish and major national media outlets expressing criticism and disgust and a video exposé. The cartoon – published uncritically – portrays Jews celebrating Passover surrounded by a sea of blood, an unmistakable reference to the centuries-old blood libel that Jews use the blood of murdered gentile children for rituals or in the matzah they bake for Passover. Even The Guardian, an outlet known for regularly minimizing the problem of antisemitism, had the ethical sense to respond and take down a similarly antisemitic cartoon.
But the response from CNN? Crickets.
Another recent example suggesting a shocking disregard for accountability came courtesy of Christiane Amanpour. During an interview with a former Israeli ambassador, the longtime CNN personality seemingly fabricated polling data to suggest “the latest polls” show the Palestinian people “want a peaceful, two-state solution to co-exist” with Israelis. Yet every single poll CAMERA could find taken by Palestinian pollsters consistently showed the exact opposite – a substantial majority against a two-state solution.
What was CNN’s response to calls for evidence of the anchor’s glib claim? Silence.
Even more recently, CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen described in these words an incident in which terrorists shot at a car with an Israeli mother and her two daughters (and then pulled the vehicle closer to fire at close range to make sure the women were dead):
“There was a shooting incident where a car received a bullet shot, or gunshots, with the family in it. It was a mother and her two daughters, and the two daughters were killed in that crash.”
The evasive, circuitous wording stood in stark contrast to his direct description in the same broadcast of the shooting death of a Palestinian, in which he plainly stated, “the Israeli military shot and killed a 15-year-old boy.” Despite a message from the correspondent that he was aware of the criticism, the communication ended as soon as the topic of publicly addressing and correcting the issue was raised.
For decades, CAMERA – a 40-year-old organization dedicated to promoting accurate and balanced coverage Israel and the Middle East – has been communicating with CNN when concerns arise. Not infrequently, CNN has done what hundreds of other media outlets do as part of normal professional practice and issued corrections. Other times, the network has declined. But very rarely over decades of interaction have network executives ignored repeated documented complaints.
The fact that CNN is allowing an antisemitic cartoon to remain on its platform at a time of rising antisemitism is all the more notable in light of its August 2022 special on “Antisemitism in America.” During the broadcast the U.S. special envoy on antisemitism advised that “words are easy, but it’s to act on it” that matters most. Jeff Cohen, a survivor of the Colleyville synagogue attack, similarly pleaded: “Letting [antisemitic] things go is a problem.”
CNN has been letting a lot go lately – chiefly its adherence to professional journalism.
{Written by David Litman and reposted from CNN}
