After CAMERA staff contacted CNN about multiple errors the article “Soccer stars protest Gaza bombing,” CNN updated the story and published a correction.
The article had wrongly claimed that 64 soccer players signed a petition calling on a European soccer federation to move a youth tournament from Israel; that soccer star Didier Drogba was one of those signatories; and that Israel’s bombing of a stadium in Gaza resulted in the deaths of four young people playing soccer.
Drogba has made clear that he never signed the petition. As CAMERA has noted, other signatures were also apparently falsified. And according to a witness in Gaza, the teens were not killed while playing soccer, but rather while rushing to the aid of Palestinian militants.
The correction, which appeared on Dec. 7, a few days after the story was published, reads:
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated that 60 players, including Didier Drogba, had signed the petition. The petition on December 6 had 52 signatories, not including Drogba.
The article was also updated to note that “CNN has not been able to confirm” the purported reports that, according to the petition, claimed the teens were killed while playing soccer.