CNN’s coverage of Tuesday morning’s attack on a Jerusalem synagogue was riddled with errors and questionable assumptions, with the network initially calling it an assault on a mosque and later equating the Palestinian attackers with their victims.
Four people — including three Americans — were killed, and nine more wounded, when two Palestinian men armed with axes, knives, and pistols stormed a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday.
But while broadcasting Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat’s condemnation of the attack, CNN ran a chyron confusing the synagogue with a mosque, implicitly suggesting that the victims were Palestinian Muslims.
The network eventually corrected their error, but then changed their chyron to emphasize the killing of the two Palestinian terrorists by Israeli police – failing to note that the young men were engaged in slaughtering innocent people when they were shot.
CNN’s online reporting mirrored its television coverage, with an initial headline suggesting the two Palestinian attackers were among the victims.
The headline was later updated to place focus on the victims and the attack itself.