Media Criticism

CNN Retracts Terrible Post About Alleged Terrorists at New York City Mayor's Mansion

"In less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs."

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CNN was forced to retract an X post on Tuesday after publishing a tone-deaf and inadvertently hilarious statement—one in the same vein as The Washington Post's infamous "austere religious scholar" headline about the death of Islamic State group terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

CNN's X post also concerned the Islamic State group. Over the weekend, two men hurled homemade explosive devices at anti-Islam protesters outside Gracie Mansion in New York City, the residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The suspects, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, have declared their support for the Islamic State group, according to reports.

In a subsequently deleted post on X, CNN described what happened thusly:

Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could've been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather.

But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's home. Here's what we know so far.

Not great! The post's irreverent tone made it seem like the hurling of the bombs—which did not explode—was someone else's doing, and the two suspects were only incidentally involved. One minute, you're walking down the street enjoying the nice weather, the next moment, you're engaged in terrorism. This is a very wrong, quasi-sympathetic way to portray a planned-in-advance attack that (thankfully) did not succeed.

It wasn't just the tweet: CNN's original article led with similarly passive, blame-shifting framing: "Less than an hour later, their trajectory took a dark turn as they were arrested." (Isn't it frustrating when one's trajectory takes a dark turn?) CNN's Brian Stelter criticized the post but remarked that the story itself "was solid." Perhaps he didn't see it until after the editors dutifully scrubbed the opening paragraph.

Media outlets make mistakes all the time, and good-faith organizations should be forgiven when they slip up and then make amendments. Moreover, this is hardly the weirdest editorial framing decision of all time. That said, it was part of the mainstream media's overall sloppy coverage of the Gracie Mansion incident, which was initially reported on in somewhat obfuscatory fashion. Mamdani's initial statement on X created ambiguity about whether the anti-Muslim protesters were responsible for the bombs; in actuality, they were the targets.

Violence is violence, and should be condemned regardless of which ideological side is responsible. Excessive score-keeping about who is doing and/or threatening more violence generally misses the point that these kinds of occurrences are extremely uncommon. But in this era of heightened attention to rare but salient acts of politically motivated violence, it is especially important to get the details right.