While summarizing the news of the day, CNN regressed into a familiar media impulse: naming Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital city.
Jerusalem, Oct. 4, 2017. (credit: Walkerssk, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
The March 18 update on the Iran war in the report titled, “5 Things to know for March 18: TSA staffing shortages, Incoming heat wave, Iran war latest, Illinois primaries, Cuba,” reported the resulting Israeli casualties from an Iranian cluster missile attack on Tel Aviv.
“In the predawn hours, CNN teams in the region witnessed flashes in the sky, including what appeared to be a cluster munition missile over Israel’s capital. Multiple locations in Tel Aviv were struck by falling debris, with bomb disposal teams and emergency crews dispatched to the scene.” [Emphasis added]
As the home of Israel’s seat of government, Jerusalem is the capital city, not Tel Aviv.
By misreporting that Tel Aviv is Israel’s capital instead of Jerusalem, CNN, as a news outlet, resorted to a politically motivated framing, not rooted in facts on the ground.
Following CAMERA’s outreach, CNN corrected the section to state “over the city,” instead of “over Israel’s capital.” The details of the correction were appended at the bottom of the article, stating, “An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Israel’s capital.”
Among the media outlets which have corrected a similar error referring to Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital instead of Jerusalem are the Associated Press, Reuters (multiple times), New York Times, The Hill, Fox, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Deutsche Welle, CNN and Alhurra in Arabic, NPR, and many others.
Errors like this are not isolated – they reflect a recurring tendency for journalists to substitute basic facts with political posturing. News reports should state plainly what is true: Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.
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