One day after The Washington Post pointed out a number of examples of CNN's Anderson Cooper and his colleagues making the same mistakes that led rival Fox News to issue embarrassing corrections and apologies, Cooper issued a mea culpa of his own.
The issue is something dubbed "no-go zones" that, according to Fox and other right-wing sources, have arisen in Europe, particularly in Paris. These places are supposedly safe havens for Muslims where Sharia law is in control and police dare not go, and these sources have reported on them in the wake of the deadly attack on satirical Paris-based magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Only problem: There are no such zones. The reporting has inflamed tensions to the point that the mayor of Paris has threatened to sue Fox News.
CNN Tuesday gleefully edited together a string of Fox News apologies and gloated. But the glee ended after the Post's Erik Wemple blogged that CNN and Cooper himself had repeatedly trafficked in the same language.
The next night on AC360, the out anchor read what CNN called a "clarification of coverage," a tightly worded acknowledgment that mistakes were made and a promise they would not be repeated:
"On Monday night on this program we aired a report critical of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and Fox News for continually saying there were no-go zones in England and elsewhere. I think if you are going to point fingers at other people's mistakes, you should also acknowledge your own mistakes and we didn't do that on the program. In the wake of the Paris attacks several guests on this program mentioned no-go zones in France. I didn't challenge them and twice referred to them as well. I should have been more skeptical. Won't make the same mistake again."
Watch Cooper's acknowledgment below:
