CNN's Cooper Retracts Video of Palestinian Man Faking Injury

November 19th, 2012 8:34 AM

On Friday's Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN, as noted at HonestReporting.com, host Cooper devoted a one-minute segment to informing viewers that his show on Thursday had used footage of a Palestinian man in Gaza who was apparently faking injury for the benefit of cameras. Cooper began his retraction:

Last night, we aired this video showing a man being pulled from flames in Gaza. After the video aired, we were pointed to an Israeli Web site that showed another image, this image. The man who was being dragged standing and conscious. The allegation was that the man was playing for the cameras as he was seen dragged away and was not, in fact, wounded.

After noting that CNN had obtained the clip from Reuters, Cooper concluded:

We obviously will not be using either image again. This is not only a traditional military conflict, but one that is being waged in the media, as well.  And our only goal in all of this is to report the truth, the facts on all fronts, and it's why we sent so many reporters and producers into the field.