Facts matter

Charlie pointed out a CNN correction yesterday:

CNN correction: A previous version of this story misstated that Rep. Ted Lieu grabbed a crowbar before leaving his office. He grabbed a ProBar energy bar.

"This is how MSM can get stories badly wrong", he wrote. "It’s amusing but also concerning. CNN today corrected a story about the storming of Capitol Hill. Facts matter."

Less funny, but just as concerning is this from the BBC's Corrections and Clarifications page. 

I count three things that the BBC had to 'correct' and 'clarify' here, from just one programme - which is quite an achievement:

Talkback

BBC Radio Ulster, 5 January 2021

During a discussion on 5 January about how different governments have responded to Covid-19 we made [1] an inaccurate estimate of Israel’s population and [2] the number of its citizens who have received a Covid-19 vaccine. For clarity, Israel has a population of around 9 million, not six million as we had suggested. And around one fifth of Israeli citizens have received a Covid-19 vaccine at this stage - which is lower than the one third total we had mentioned. 

We note that whilst there has been some dispute about the Israeli government’s responsibility for vaccinating Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, those Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem, or who hold Israeli citizenship, are covered by the roll-out of the government’s Covid-19 vaccination programme. [3] This distinction was not made clear in the brief exchanges between contributors on this issue - all of which took place in the context of other media reports about the speed, extent and effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccinations in Israel, relative to elsewhere. 

12/01/2021

Probably narrative-building again.