Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested for a bomb-throwing attack outside of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence during dueling protests. Both individuals claimed affiliation with Isis.
In its X feed, CNN posted a headline that read "Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could've been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather."
Abigail Jackson, White House deputy press secretary, posted on X that CNN’s post was the same as the lede to their article regarding the incident.
Fox News contributor Joe Concha can't understand how it made it past one and, more than likely, a team of editors.
“Not only did they bury the lede, they put it like 10 feet under, picked it up and buried it again. I mean, this is not something that you can take seriously in any way, shape or form,” states Concha.
But the CNN post wasn't done. "But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim outside protest Mayor Mamdani's home."
Concha says the post might have looked like this in 1941.
“Two Japanese sailors were in the Pacific when suddenly they stumbled upon this thing called Hawaii and the U.S. military port called Pearl Harbor when suddenly they were unwittingly engaged in these attacks on U.S. naval operations,” Concha gives as an example.
He says it was a wildly inappropriate tone for what could have been a deadly disaster.
“If these IEDs went off, it would be like the Boston bombing all over again. And remember what happened there. A 10-year-old boy was blown up. Three people were killed, 500 injured,” says Concha.
CNN later admitted the post was inappropriate and removed it. They said that the post “failed to reflect the gravity of the incident” and that it breached “editorial standards we require for all our reporting.”
The Daily Beast reported that CNN also edited the beginning of their article twice and added an editor’s note stating that it had been changed for the same reasons.
Concha says what they were desperately trying to do was avoid stating the obvious.
“The suspects are Islamic extremists who sought to take out and maim Americans that they disagreed with,” states Concha.
