Former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” that the media made an “atrocious series of mistakes” while covering this week’s bombing of a Gaza hospital.
Stelter said, “Sometimes, Dan, you’re out there criticizing the media and I want to defend the media, but there is no defense here. 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.”
He continued, “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. The standard should be the highest when the stakes are as high as they are right now.”
He added, “There is no doubt this was a tragedy at the hospital, but there was this rush to judgment based on a one-sided story from whatever the opposite of a reliable source is, and that’s what was so disturbing about Tuesday, and like I said, because there hasn’t been a follow-up, a kind of series of accountability, I’m worried that it could keep happening.”
Stelter concluded, “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. They actually did harm as opposed to trying to do the opposite.”
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