The “CBS Evening News” was roasted Wednesday night for a social media post that suggested Israel was to blame for the explosion that rocked the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City despite President Biden and the Israeli government saying otherwise.
“CBS Evening News” wrote on X, the platform formally known as Twitter, that the “humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to grow following a hospital explosion that killed hundreds. CBS News spoke to a doctor who says Israel’s army had previously warned the facility to evacuate.”
The quickly ridiculed CBS post accompanied a video in which a Gaza woman said they got “bombed,” and the CBS News reporter put an emphasis on Palestinian claims that an Israeli rocket previously struck the hospital. CBS then spoke with a doctor who suggested Israel was at fault, and put a spotlight on injured children before finally mentioning that President Biden said the Israeli military is not to blame more than a minute into the video.
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“CBS Evening News” was roasted Wednesday night for a social media post that suggested Israel was to blame for the explosion that rocked the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City despite President Biden and the Israeli government saying otherwise. (Twitter/Screenshot)
“From the street of Tehran to war-torn Yemen, few believe the president and say Israel is squarely responsible for the explosion as well as the widespread misery unfolding in Gaza,” CBS reporter Imtiaz Tyab said.
Readers added context to the misleading CBS post, and it was slapped with a community note that said “President Joe Biden has confirmed that the explosion was most likely a result of the misfiring of a Hamas missile. Video also shows that the explosion was in a car park and does not appear to have demolished any buildings.”
The CBS News segment shared to over 400,000 followers never explained that the Israeli government determined the blast was caused by a rocket misfire launched by Islamic Jihad, another terrorist organization active in Gaza. It also failed to mention the widespread backlash the mainstream media has faced for believing the Hamas-backed health ministry in Gaza’s claim that Israel struck a hospital in the first place.
BIDEN SAYS ISRAEL NOT TO BLAME FOR GAZA HOSPITAL BLAST, CITES DATA ‘SHOWN BY MY DEFENSE DEPARTMENT’
President Biden has publicly said Israel was not to blame for the explosion that rocked the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday. (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Many were quick to mock CBS for the post.
“This is literally disinformation,” one person wrote as another added, “Did Hamas write this tweet?”
The post had not been deleted as of Thursday morning, 24 hours after Biden said Israel was not at fault.
Others called it “propaganda,” many called for CBS to delete it altogether and some questioned the journalistic integrity of the message. It came on the same day that IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner blasted the media for echoing Hamas talking points.
“This is an organization that will butcher babies in their bedrooms, they’ll have no problem lying to you,” Lerner said Wednesday on “Outnumbered.”
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Lerner said that journalists want to provide a good service to people who want to be informed, and cautioned that getting it wrong can have lasting effects.
“When you fail like this, first of all you’re failing your viewers, but you’re failing the story. And I felt for the victims of Hamas’ terrorist attack this morning and that’s why I was very, very direct. I felt the need to do that,” Lerner said. “In these crazy times, in times of conflict, we need to be responsible and stand up to that responsibility… I’ve been presenting Israel’s case in order to try to get this message across – Hamas cannot be trusted.”
CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
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