N.B This post was originally published in July 2015.
CNN continuously raises the bar in…no – not news coverage, they raise the bar in the mocking department by repeatedly making ridiculous mistakes that cost them most of their already dwindling credibility. The rest of the media isn’t that much better either, namely Fox News.
Here are a few of the times the media got it all wrong:
5. When they confused Obama with Osama
Leader of the free world vs. world’s most renowned terrorist… it’s a tricky one. Well, a navy seal killed Osama, the terorrist, the beard guy… the guy with the beard who orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. Obama is the guy who gave you healthcare and appeared on SNL too many times for my comfort.
4. When they put up a map of Lebanon, and proceeded to discuss Libya
Okay I get it, they both have cities of Tripoli, and both countries start with the letter ‘L’. This is already too much for anyone who works at CNN.
The screen reads, “Gadhafi whereabouts unknown” – maybe that’s because you’re looking for him in Lebanon! Try, I don’t know… a thousand miles west.
3. When They Misplaced Egypt and Lost Iraq
Back in 2009, Fox News didn’t know where anything was; they put Egypt in Iraq’s place and created a new unnamed country in place of Iraq. Egypt…Iraq…same thing; when you hate everybody, it’s easy to get them mixed up!
2. When they confused President Putin with a jihadist
It was dubbed a “technical error” when Russian president Vladimir Putin’s face flashed on the screen during CNN’s live news broadcast discussing ISIS executioner Jihadi John. The best part is that Putin looks thoroughly annoyed in the photo, like, “Are you kidding me?”
1. When CNN thought buttplugs, dildos were the ISIS flag
And most recently in London, CNN’s international correspondent Lucy Pawle was appauled (aPawled?) when she spotted the ISIS flag amid the city’s gay pride parade. “If you look at the flag closely, it’s clearly not Arabic,” Pawle said. “In fact, it looks like it could be gobbledegook. But it’s very distinctively the ISIS flag.”
Slow clap for Lucy because the flag turned out to be an assortment of dildos and buttplugs. Has no one on the editing team of CNN experienced the pleasure of a tapered glass buttplug? In their defense, they’ve been very preoccupied with the Malaysian airline crash of Flight 370. Still. They’re still covering it.
