HRC Secures Rare CBC On-Air Correction

February 8, 2008

By: Mike Fegelman

Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber:

When the terrible news broke that Palestinian suicide bombers struck a mall in southern Israel on Monday, killing an Israeli woman and injuring more than 20 other people, many Canadians turned to the CBC for an appraisal of the events unfolding.

 

Overall, the CBC’s combined news coverage was consistent and accurate, yet, one report carried a grossly incorrect statement.

On the Monday February 4th broadcast of CBC Around the World, host Jacquie Perrin erroneously stated the following in an introduction of a Peter Armstrong report:

“In the Mideast, thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza this afternoon for the funeral of one of their leaders. He was killed in an Israeli air strike earlier in the day, retaliation for a horrific attack inside Israel.” Watch the clip by clicking on the image below.

Contrary to this statement, the air strike on Abu Said Qarmout, the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), had nothing to do with the suicide attack in Dimona. The PRC is one of many terrorist organizations which have targeted Israel with unrelenting barrages of Qassam rocket attacks and this air strike was designed to prevent their capabilities to target Israeli cities like Sderot and Ashkelon.

By stating that this attack was a “retaliation” implies that there was some causation between the two incidents which is factually incorrect and ostensibly leads credence to statements like “cycle of violence” and “tit-for-tat” attacks. Furthermore no Israeli sources have gone on record as saying that the attack was in “retaliation” or that it had anything to do with the suicide bombing. Instead, it was a regular security operation performed by the Israeli Defense Forces to prevent terror rocket attacks by targeting one of the most wanted and notorious terrorists in Gaza.

HonestReporting Canada brought these concerns to the CBC’s attention, which to its credit, very promptly and professionally set the record straight by issuing this rare on-air correction only two days later. You can view the correction by clicking on the image below.

 

 

According to host Harry Forestall on Wednesday’s edition of Around the World:

“We want to clarify a story we told you about two days ago. After a suicide bomber killed one Israeli, we reported on the death of the Palestinian militant later that day saying it was in retaliation for the suicide bombing. In fact, there is no proof that the two incidents were linked.”

While we applaud the CBC for setting the record straight in an attempt to remedy the original error, notwithstanding, many CBC viewers did not see this correction and continue to be misled in believing that Israel was only acting out of vengeance and not for security. Such is the importance of the media getting it right in the first place.

How You Can Make a Difference

HonestReporting Canada encourages readers to commend the CBC for its prompt and professional correction that set the record straight.

To contact the CBC please send letters to the CBC's Audience Relations department at audience_relations@cbc.ca and reference CBC Around the World's Feb. 6 on-air correction.