CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said Wednesday night that he should’ve been more skeptical of guests who talked about Muslim “no-go zones” on his show in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.
As the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple first pointed out, CNN anchors and guests made several unchallenged references to “no-go zones,” which are areas allegedly controlled by Sharia law where non-Muslims and police do not enter, earlier this month.
Cooper’s acknowledgement of those “mistakes” comes after the network criticized Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) for perpetuating the myth of so-called “no-go zones” in Europe.
“I think if you’re gonna point fingers at other people’s mistakes, you should also acknowledge your own mistakes, and we didn’t do that on the program,” Cooper said.
“In the wake of the Paris attacks, several guests on this program mentioned no-go zones in France,” he added. “I didn’t challenge them and twice referred to them as well. I should have been more skeptical. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
Cooper did not apologize for using the term to the extent that Fox News did, however. Fox’s “terrorism expert” Steven Emerson went as far as to call all of Birmingham, England a “no-go zone,” prompting that network to issue a comprehensive correction and apologize for the error.
“To be clear, there is no formal designation of these zones in either country, and no credible information to support the assertion that there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion,” Fox News anchor Julie Banderas said Saturday.
“There are certainly areas of high crime in Europe, as there are in the United States and other countries where police and visitors enter with caution,” she continued. “We deeply regret the errors and apologize to any and all who may have taken offense, including the people of France and England.”
Watch below:
Shorter Cooper I need to stop using World Net Daily for my news feed . Usually their stories boost our ratings when there ain’t no mysterious plane disappearances.
This would never happen on Aljazeera.
“I didn’t challenge them and twice referred to them as well. I should have been more skeptical. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
No, what he did was run to a GOP constructed talking points over Obama "not sending an important official to Paris " and dismissed the Vice President as a guy that watches junk TV programs and does little else. What Obama did do was send a plane load of investigators and consultants to France…while Mr. Cooper was allowing his viewers to be mislead by assholes.
“Cooper did not apologize for using the term to the extent that Fox News did, however.”
Actually, I would say he went further, in that he made a blanket apology. Note the weasel words in the Fox statement quoted (emphasis added):
Well Anderson that’s what happens when CNN tries so hard to be “Fox Lite”. Maybe if you interviewed liars on the CNN Pseudo 3D Holodeck made to look like a No-Go-Zone, it would have been more believable. Nah, probably not.