CNN Wrongly Claims Woman Shot By Police Was Pregnant

May 16th, 2019 11:41 AM

In a couple of reports that aired on Tuesday, CNN repeated claims that a woman who was shot and killed by a Texas police officer was pregnant, but, unlike the three broadcast networks, CNN never got around to informing viewers that an autopsy revealed that the woman was lying to the police officer about being pregnant as she resisted arrest.

On Tuesday morning at 10:14 a.m. Eastern, CNN host Jim Sciutto teased the upcoming segment: "Truly a disturbing police-involved shooting near Houston, Texas, captured on video. An officer kills a woman who can actually be heard on the video shouting. 'I'm pregnant.'"

 

 

A few minutes later, Sciutto read a second plug: "A woman who said she was pregnant shot and killed by a police officer in a Texas apartment complex. Their deadly encounter caught in a disturbing video."

At 10:31 a.m., the news network spent three minutes on the story, with Sciutto showing video clips taken by an unidentified witness showing the officer trying to arrest the woman, Pamela Turner, because there were warrants for her arrest. As she resisted, she shouted, "I'm pregnant!"

Sciutto informed viewers that, after Turner grabbed the officer's taser and used it on him, he shot her several times, killing her.

A few hours later, at 2:27 p.m., CNN host Brooke Baldwin also gave the story almost three minutes. She began: "A Houston-area police officer has been placed on paid administrative leave after video surfaced showng him violently struggling to arrest a woman who said she was pregnant."

She added: "That woman identified by family members as Pamela Turner is now dead. She was shot by the officer when he claimed she tased him with his own stun gun. The whole shooting was caught on tape."

As correspondent Ed Lavandera filed a full report, it was never mentoined that Turner was not actually pregnant as she claimed.

Even though all three broadcast networks on Tuesday evening informed viewers that an autopsy revealed that she was not actually pregnant, CNN has so far more than 24 hours later failed to update viewers on this significant development.

 

 

And, although ABC's World News Tonight did give viewers the critical update, ABC's Good Morning America has also so far not revisited the story it did on Tuesday morning which had repeated Turner's claim that she was pregnant, although the reporter treated the claim as unconfirmed, unlike CNN, which never questioned whether she was telling the truth.