CNN Corrects: Criticism of Israel from UN, not US, Official

CAMERA staff has prompted a CNN correction of a report last week which erroneously stated that an American human rights official criticized Israel for alleged crimes against humanity. In fact, the official in question was from the United Nations.
 
As first noted by our Snapshots blog, Brooke Baldwin reported July 23:

And we are hearing some pretty strong criticism of Israel today. Coming from one of the U.S.’s top human rights officials. The criticism came during an emergency meeting in Geneva.

 
As Snapshots wrote last week:

In fact, no top U.S. human rights official leveled strong criticism of Israel yesterday. The human rights official in question is a United Nations figure, not American. The broadcast immediately goes on to quote Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights: “The right to life of civilians, including children, should be a foremost consideration. Not abiding by these principals amounts to war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”

Ms. Baldwin most likely simply misspoke — but her error is a substantive, egregious one which requires correction.

The United States is a close ally of Israel which has defended the country’s right to self-defense in the face of rocket attacks and cross-border. Though American officials expressed concern about civilian casualties in Gaza, none even remotely accused Israel of crimes against humanity. The UN Human Rights Council, and Navi Pillay, on the other hand, have a longrecordof hostilitytowards Israel, including bizarre, one-sided condemnations of Israel while ignoringfar worse abuses around the world.

Right after receiving communication from CAMERA, Baldwin commendably made the following on air correction July 24:

For additional CNN corrections prompted by CAMERA, see here.

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