In October 2023, as the Israel-Hamas war was just a few weeks old, CNN was one of a number of networks that bit on a story that an Israel Defenses Forces rocket had hit a hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds.
“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,” the report initially read.
“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. CNN has asked the IDF for comment on [the] hospital strike.”
A few days later, an embarrassing addendum to the story: “CORRECTION: 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. Israel later said a ‘misfired’ rocket by militant group Islamic Jihad caused the blast and produced evidence to support its claim.”
Oh, and the misfire wasn’t “likely to have killed hundreds,” according to later analyses by intelligence officials. But other than who did it and how many people were killed, CNN got everything right. Which is to say it got none of it right, since those were the two salient facts. Nice work.
Ah well. At least the network has learned its lesson in the interim. Or not:
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since start of Israel-Hamas war, health ministry in the territory says https://t.co/nbKunNlDXk
— CNN (@CNN) March 23, 2025
That’s right: “More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s war with Hamas began, the territory’s health ministry said Sunday, a grim milestone for a war with no end in sight as Israel resumes fighting and warns of even tougher days ahead,” the Sunday report read.
“Authorities in Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters when reporting casualty figures, but the health ministry and the United Nations say the majority of deaths are women and children. And the true toll could be much higher, with many thousands believed to still be under the rubble.”
One does not wish to answer this “grim milestone” with a meme, but this about sums it up:
You did the meme https://t.co/zliQYyxwnC pic.twitter.com/dra7Sn9o8e
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 24, 2025
Yes, CNN made the same mistake that it did the last time it did this: The outlet is essentially cosigning the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health about the death toll in a war caused by Hamas.
It’s believing a designated terror organization about what their terror hath wrought, in other words, because they currently control one of the two constituent parts of the Palestinian Authority — and amplifying their rhetoric, which states that Israel deserved whatever it had coming but losses in Gaza are all poor, benighted civilians targeted by genocidal agents.
The lack of journalistic standards was noted by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, among others:
CNN’s source is a purveyor of violent terrorism—one that has unapologetically massacred innocent men, women, and children https://t.co/wEsXYXOKZ7
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) March 24, 2025
CNN pushing Hamas propaganda.
It’s the media’s job to fact check claims, not amplify the claims of a terrorist group. https://t.co/MXHg0SiPLL
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 23, 2025
More than 50,000 lies repeated by @CNN authored by the same people who committed #Oct7Massacre & are holding / killing hostages.
We need @FCC or hearings to go after lying cable news. https://t.co/GJVlLZg98k— William Rapfogel (@WRapfogel) March 23, 2025
I prefer when they use the word “eleventy” in the headline. It makes it more believable. https://t.co/xnDG5J2Sba
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) March 23, 2025
It’s worth noting that CNN put this disclaimer pretty far down in the story: “In response, the IDF told CNN that the Hamas-controlled ministry’s figures are ‘replete with inconsistencies and false determinations,’ adding that the ministry tends to ‘record deaths unrelated to the conflict, such as natural deaths.’”
Apparently, the IDF has to not only inform CNN of the (literally) bloody obvious — namely, it’s not great journalistic ethics to echo terrorist groups — but that the frequently debunked health ministry stats include people who have died of natural causes to inflate the number, to the extent it’s even real, anyway.
CNN can’t even learn from its own blatant mistakes — and is getting owned for it for the exact same reason it was correcting itself a year and a half ago. Pathetic.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
