CNN News Coverage of Jerusalem Tragedy

After coming under heavy fire for its initial coverage of Tuesday's attack at Bnei Torah synagogue in Western Jerusalem, CNN issued a public apology.

“As CNN updated its reporting on the terrorist attack on the synagogue in Jerusalem earlier today, our coverage did not immediately reflect the fact that the two Palestinians killed were the attackers. We erred and regret the mistake," CNN said in a statement that was posted on Israeli news websites late Tuesday.

CNN’s initial headline reporting the attack read “4 Israelis, 2 Palestinians Dead in Jerusalem," leading to ridicule for its conflation of victims and attackers.

In a later headline, CNN mistakenly referred to the synagogue in which the killings took place as a mosque:

Internet users were not quick to forget the mistake. Several Facebook users developed memes with victim-blaming headlines: 

CNN wasn't the only outlet to come under fire for its reporting on the massacre.

Golda Meir on CNN By: Asher Schwartz

Israel Matzav: CNN called attacked synagogue a mosque

No, those aren't photoshops. They're actual screen shots from CNN's coverage of Tuesday's 'Palestinian' terror attack.

This is Tom Gross. 

As Bret Stephens once wrote about the New York Times When one carefully examines the New York Times’s corrections column, one can see that in all cases the mistakes were made against Israel. “In a more normal world,” wrote Stephens, “a newspaper’s mistakes, particularly in its political and diplomatic reporting, would more-or-less be randomly distributed... Yet while a search of NYT corrections over the past two years discloses the usual measure of forgivable bloopers, not once has the paper erred on the side of Israel. A pattern of bias, maybe?”

Indeed. 

ESPICABLE DISTORTION OF FACTS: CNN Twists Headline In Horrific Terror Attack In Har Nof Shul – Demand to Revoke Ben Wederman’s Press Pass

It is really not a revelation to report that CNN is less than honest when it comes to its coverage of events in Israel. While factually the articles are correct, the headlines and at times the story are slanted in such a way that a reader receives a less than accurate reading of events. This was the case today following the Har Nof terror attack when CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman @bencnn published the headline “4 Israelis, 2 Palestinians killed in Synagogue  attack” which was in fact true, opting to ignore the fact the “2 Palestinians” were Arab terrorists and Jerusalem residents who just butchered worshipers in a Jerusalem shul, innocent Jewish residents of the Jerusalem neighborhood in the midst of morning prayers.

The headlines noticeably omitted that the two Palestinians were the terrorists armed with guns and knives who were responsible for the attack which claimed the lives of at four innocent people Davening Shacharis.

Shomron Regional Council media relations liaison Yossi Dagan was infuriated when catching the headline, which he calls a gross violation of journalistic ethics, demanding that the Government Press Office follow-up by revoking Wedeman’s credentials in Israel.

Dagan angrily laments the fact that agencies can get away with this, adding they can only do so in Israel.

Ynet news website described the headlines as “outrageous.”

“Israelis who were hoping for some understanding, internationally, instead were stuck with CNN in an item whose headline was outrageous,” a story on their website read.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Yet another Anti Israel CNN Video...

CNN: Terrorist attack = 'Israel's term for a Palestinian strike'

CNN reports from the scene: A bomb exploded near a bus stop in a Jewish neighbourhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday, injuring at least 30 people, police and medics said. Police described the explosion as a “terrorist attack” — Israel’s term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first such bombing in Jerusalem in seven years.  There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which police said was caused by a bomb planted close to Jerusalem’s main conference hall and central bus terminal.

YNET: Israel demands CNN apology over attack coverage American network reporters present tendentious coverage of Saturday's gruesome murder in Itamar, question fact it was a terrorist attack. Israel's Government Press Office 'dumbfounded, astonished'

Israel is demanding an apology from CNN over its coverage of Saturday's terrorist attack in Itamar claiming it was "tendentious and deceptive." Government Press Office director Oren Helman sent a letter to CNN's Bureau Chief Kevin Flower saying he was astonished at the network's coverage of the ruthless attack.

A CNN website report avoided describing the event as a terror attack, noting that the Israel Defense Forces consider it an act of terrorism. "Only you decided to use the term terrorist attack in quotation marks, as if this were not necessarily the case," Helman wrote. "There is a limit to the extent of objectivity regarding such a horrific deed."

The CNN report. 'Family members killed in what military calls terror attack'

The CNN report stated: "Five members of an Israeli family were killed in the West Bank early Saturday morning in what the Israeli military is calling a 'terror attack.'"

The report went on to say: "According to a military spokeswoman, an intruder entered the Israeli settlement of Itamar near the northern West Bank city of Nablus around 1 am, made his way into a family home and killed two parents and their three children."

The IDF's official statement noted that forces were searching for a "terrorist" and not an "intruder" as the CNN report noted. The terrorist was also referred to as an "assailant" later in the report. There was no mention of the possibility this was the act of a Palestinian terrorist.

BBC report. 'Family members stabbed by an intruder'

The BBC also referred to the terrorist as an intruder in its report. "The family - including three children - were stabbed to death by an intruder who broke into their home, Israeli media reported," the BBC reported Saturday. Readers might deduce the family members died in a failed burglary attempt.

The BBC went further and evinced its stance on Israel's policy in the territories. "Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem," the report stated. "They are held to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this."