As we told you, Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler is all over the footage of a man hanging from a Taliban helicopter, footage that misrepresented the Taliban, who would never actually even dream of doing such a thing to someone. We mean, as if!
Well, CNN has also been on this terrible misinformation. Here’s star fact checker Daniel Dale:
The claim that the Taliban executed a man via helicopter hanging – promoted by Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, and numerous others on the right – has been thoroughly debunked. Here's the most thorough fact check so far, from @zoo_bear: https://t.co/fVQrGrDGrq
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 31, 2021
And still-employed CNN anchor Chris Cuomo is waiting for everyone who shared the misrepresented footage to apologize and issue corrections:
Will any correct themselves? https://t.co/Pgm7KUsOkn
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) September 1, 2021
Well? Will they?
Chris Cuomo is very concerned that people may have mistakenly called the Taliban barbaric monsters. https://t.co/1puOXsKTxv
— RBe (@RBPundit) September 1, 2021
And we can’t have that.
Anyway, National Review’s Jim Geraghty was among the many people who shared the footage before realizing that it wasn’t depicting an actual hanging.
Here's those famously "pragmatic and business-like" Taliban, hanging some guy from a helicopter in a totally "pragmatic and business-like" manner… pic.twitter.com/T4Q9IOrtyQ
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) August 30, 2021
Geraghty was more than willing to admit his mistake. Not that it matters to CNN.
Also in today’s Jolt, CNN reports that the video of the man hanging from a helicopter was not being hung by his neck, but was being suspended from a harness.https://t.co/qWz14zVkxS pic.twitter.com/yby8j9zM6b
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) September 1, 2021
In today’s edition of the “Morning Jolt,” Geraghty briefly discusses CNN using his earlier tweet as an example of misinformation being spread.
They mention this tweet of mine, feeling it is important to refute my assertion that the Taliban are not as “pragmatic and business-like” as General Frank McKenzie claimed. https://t.co/lDmfi3VnzV
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) September 1, 2021
Evidently CNN, like Glenn Kessler, has forgotten what sorts of barbarism and violence the Taliban are capable of. Which means it’s up to people like Jim Geraghty to remind them:
I’ll just have to find one of the hundreds of other examples of Taliban barbarism to make my point, like the fact that after promising an amnesty, the Taliban are executing members of the Afghan army.https://t.co/mbogp5wDhz
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) September 1, 2021
As an honest journalist, Jim Geraghty is capable and willing to admit to making a mistake. If only that were true of CNN.
CNN is making a grave mistake in defending the Taliban’s honor. And they’ll never admit it.
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