CNN took heat — even from a Democratic lawmaker– over the way it presented its headline of an American hostage killed by Hamas.
“Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin has died, family confirms via statement,” CNN’s original headline said. The original headline was quick to garner criticism, accusing the network of language that was “f—ked up” and “exonerating terrorists.”
Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said, “Newsflash for the media: Hostages like Hersh Goldberg Polin did not just ‘die.’ They were murdered by Hamas… Words matter because the truth matters.”
Two weeks later in the southern Israel town of Arad, Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin was presumed abducted at a music festival as Hamas continued its October 7 barrage.
Hamas video showed him being loaded onto a truck with his hand and most of the lower part of his arm blown off from an explosion caused by a grenade. Israel’s X social media platform posted: “He was murdered.”
The parties of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former head of the opposition Yair Lapid released a statement on Wednesday that read, “Six hostages murdered in Gaza, including Israeli-American Goldberg-Polin,” using wording employed by major American news outlets like CNN.
The revision came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that six Israeli captives, including Goldberg-Polin, were shot dead by Hamas as IDF rescuers zeroed in on tunnels under Gaza’s Rafah area.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “From an early assessment, it looks like Hamas terrorists took advantage of the events and there is a high probability that they were caught by Hamas men in cold blood.”
But critics derided CNN, including Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who said: “Shame on you CNN and all those media outlets that continue to twist the English language to exonerate terrorists and murderers.”
The criticism of CNN spilled into the days that followed.
“CNN misspells ‘murdered,’” watchdog group StopAntisemitism said. “This is just embarrassing.”
Actor and comedian Michael Rappaport said, “Yo CNN is f—ed up!”
