Fired CNN media maven Brian Stelter slammed his former network and other mainstream outlets over their “atrocious series of mistakes” in covering the bombing of a hospital in Gaza.
Hamas had immediately pointed the finger at Israel for Tuesday’s blast at Ahli Arab Hospital, with the terror group claiming the death toll was around 500.
Israel denied firing rockets at the hospital and blamed the incident on a misfired missile from the Hamas-backed terror group Islamic Jihad.
However, outlets including CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post immediately ran with the statement from Hamas’ terrorist-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, President Biden said Israel was “not responsible” for the bombing during his visit to the Jewish state, echoing the findings by his National Security Council.
The purported figure of 500 killed has also come under scrutiny, with intelligence analysts putting the death toll at around 50.
“This was an atrocious series of mistakes by many different major newsrooms all around the same time on Tuesday and unfortunately I don’t think there’s been enough follow-up or accountability to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Stelter, former host of CNN’s now-defunct media analysis show “Reliable Sources,” during an appearance on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” on Wednesday night.
Stelter, who was ousted from CNN by since-fired CEO Chris Licht in August 2022, said there was “no defense” on how the media regurgitated a one-sided story from an unreliable source.
“I’ve noticed oftentimes in breaking news stories, breaking news scenarios, when information is lowest, interest is highest, and by the time we actually know the facts, people move on. Well, this was one of those cases, but it was even worse because when the stakes are highest, it seems the standards were the lowest, and it should be the opposite,” he said. “The standard should be the highest when the stakes are as high as they are right now.”
Anchor Dan Abrams, who has criticized the reporting on the Israel-Hamas war, asked Stelter if he thought the media was biased against Israel or if this was a case of laziness.
“It’s more about a rush to report whatever is new. After all, the word ‘news’ has the word ‘new’ in it. There’s always a desire to get out whatever you’re hearing most recently,” Stelter said.
He recalled a lesson from when he was covering the aftermath of a tornado.
He told Abrams that he asked himself: “What does a journalist do in the middle of an emergency?”
“First, do no harm. You’re like a doctor, don’t make a terrible situation worse. War is already hell, it should not be made worse by misreporting, but I fear that on Tuesday the media made a bad situation worse,” he said. “They actually did harm as opposed to trying to do the opposite.”