CBS, like most of the rest of the media, initially uncritically repeated Hamas claims that Israel bombed a Gaza hospital that turned out to be false. Nevertheless, chief political analyst John Dickerson defended the network’s coverage on Tuesday’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, using the hospital as an example of why careful reporting is necessary.
Colbert asked, “You are covering the Israeli-Gaza conflict right now. What is the challenge of that? In any conflict, there is the so-called fog of war. How hard is it for, let’s say, the CBS News organization to feel confident of the news we are getting about the attacks on both sides?”
Dickerson hyped that, “we have great reporters on the ground, risking their lives. It’s amazing what they do. And producers in Gaza, in danger. And so, you rely on their first-hand account, you be really slow, you always center the human, these are human beings engaged in every possible aspect of this war and don't forget that and then you have to be just super careful.”
Giving viewers a look behind the scenes, Dickerson continued, “We have-- the number of emails that come from our standards department saying ‘where did this footage come from, where did this report come from, be careful of what you are saying on TV’ not because its politically charged which of course it is, but because you don't want to say something that is going to cause – I mean, look what happened about the early reporting about the hospital bombing in Gaza.”
Dickerson also recalled how, “it essentially kept Biden from his meetings when he went over there because the initial reports were that it had been an Israeli bomb that had hit that hospital. So if, when you think those are the consequences, you just have to be super, super slow and rely on your reporters to go cover the story everywhere as best they can without getting hurt.”
That’s all well and good, but it ignores how CBS actually reported on the hospital in real time. International correspondent Charlie D’Agata declared on October 17, “Hamas blamed Israel, saying the strike is the result of what they call unlimited U.S. support for Israel. It triggered international condemnation. Egypt, Qatar, Iran, Jordan, and Turkey among the countries who have denounced the air strike… Reigning in Israeli retaliation in an effort to avoid enflaming the entire region, is among the biggest challenges facing President Biden as he visits here in a show of solidarity with Israel.”
It is not just the hospital itself, it is causality estimates and fuel availability assessments, where CBS should take its own advice.
Here is a transcript for the October 31-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
11/1/2023
12:25 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: Let's go overseas for just a second. Biden went over to Israel, gave Bibi Netanyahu a big hug and sent two carrier groups, the Ford and the Eisenhower, over there to sit off the coast. It’s a big show of force on behalf of America. You are covering the Israeli-Gaza conflict right now. What is the challenge of that? In any conflict, there is the so-called fog of war. How hard is it for, let’s say, the CBS News organization to feel confident of the news we are getting about the attacks on both sides?
JOHN DICKERSON: Well the first thing is we have great reporters on the ground, risking their lives. It’s amazing what they do. And producers in Gaza, in danger. And so, you rely on their first-hand account, you be really slow, you always center the human, these are human beings engaged in every possible aspect of this war and don't forget that and then you have to be just super careful.
We have-- the number of emails that come from our standards department saying “where did this footage come from, where did this report come from, be careful of what you are saying on TV” not because its politically charged which of course it is, but because you don't want to say something that is going to cause – I mean, look what happened about the early reporting about the hospital bombing in Gaza. It cancelled, it essentially kept Biden from his meetings when he went over there because the initial reports were that it had been an Israeli bomb that had hit that hospital. So if, when you think those are the consequences, you just have to be super, super slow and rely on your reporters to go cover the story everywhere as best they can without getting hurt.
