NBC Corrects: 3400-Year-Old Pottery Not From ‘Palestine’

“Lost golden city of Luxor,” a fascinating segment about a recently discovered ancient city in Egypt which aired in the April 9 broadcast of “News with Shepard Smith” erred : “There has never been this much pottery discovered at one site — and it comes from all over Syria and Palestine, the artifacts museum ready.” Of course, the region of Canaan, as it was known at the time, did not take on the name “Palestine” until more than 1500 years later,  when the Romans named Judea “Palestina” in 135 CE, after the Jews’ ancient enemy. (The kingdoms of Israel and Judea arose in the early Bronze Age, around 1000 BCE).

The error was initially commendably and thoroughly fixed at some of NBC platforms, for instance, here and here. The latter page carries an editor’s note, stating: “A previous version of this story misidentified the regions where the pottery was found.” A note super-imposed on the video itself on both pages states: “A previous version of this story misidentified the regions where the pottery was found.” In these versions, the phrase “and it comes from all over Syria and Palestine,” was deleted.

Earlier this week, however, CAMERA noted that the error was still extant on some NBC platforms, such as the CNBC site and its YouTube page. In response to communication with NBC, the network removed the segment from the CNBC platforms.