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CNN Calls Terrorist Bombing a “Bus Fire”

UPDATE Success! Following the publication of this post and a complaint from HonestReporting, CNN has amended its headline to read, “Jerusalem bus attack injures at least 21, police say” thus confirming that the event was, indeed, an…

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UPDATE

HRsuccessSuccess! Following the publication of this post and a complaint from HonestReporting, CNN has amended its headline to read, “Jerusalem bus attack injures at least 21, police say” thus confirming that the event was, indeed, an attack.

 

* * *

Yesterday evening terrorists bombed an Israeli bus in Jerusalem, injuring 21 people, some seriously, with one remaining in critical condition.

This morning’s CNN headline?  “Jerusalem bus fire injures at least 21, police say.”

CNN headline for insert

But that’s not what the police are saying at all. According to CNN’s own Twitter message the previous evening, the police actually said there was “no doubt” that bus blast in Jerusalem was an attack.

cropped cnn twitter

Additional sources confirmed this that this was an intentional attack on Israelis, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who called yesterday’s terror a “heinous act,” and even CNN’s own video feed confirms the police statement:

CNN bus fire video screen

Our managing editor, Simon Plosker, said in an interview with The Algemeiner, “CNN’s headline implies that the bus spontaneously combusted. The bus did not simply catch fire – it was a deliberate act and CNN fails to acknowledge this. That the headline is still online hours after terrorism has been confirmed as the cause of the blaze is absolutely appalling.”

The Algemeiner article was published yesterday evening, as was the CNN tweet confirming that CNN is aware that this was an intentional attack.

Yet, even as of the writing of this article, CNN’s headline continues to inform the world that 21 Israeli people were injured by “a bus fire.”

Israel implements security measures specifically to help prevent these kind of attacks. Yet if news readers don’t even know that attacks are taking place, then news sources can easily misrepresent Israel’s efforts to protect its people as unreasonable or even excessive.

Which is why it is so important to hold CNN to account.

Please send your considered comments to CNN by clicking on this link and filling out their feedback form.

Featured image: Nati Shohat/Flash90
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