newsAntisemitism

Amanpour apologizes to Rabbi Leo Dee

Twelve days after saying the rabbi’s wife and two daughters were killed in a “shootout,” the CNN anchor said on the air that she “misspoke.”

Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour, correspondents for “CNN,” broadcast live from a hill near the southern Israeli town of Sderot overseeing the Gaza strip on Jan 5, 2009. Photo by Kobi Gideon/Flash90.
Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour, correspondents for “CNN,” broadcast live from a hill near the southern Israeli town of Sderot overseeing the Gaza strip on Jan 5, 2009. Photo by Kobi Gideon/Flash90.

“And just a note,” Christiane Amanpour, CNN chief international anchor, said, 22 minutes and 50 seconds into her May 22 show “Amanpour.”

“On April 10th, I referred to the murders of a British-Israeli family, Lucy Dee and Maia and Rina Dee, the wife and daughters of Rabbi Leo Dee. During that live interview, I misspoke and said that they were killed in a ‘shootout’ instead of a ‘shooting.’ I have written to Rabbi Dee to apologize and make sure that he knows that we apologize for any further pain that may have caused him,” Amanpour said.

The statement offered no apology to viewers, and it did not explain why it took 12 days to correct.

HonestReporting called the correction a “success,” noting that it publicly called for Amanpour to issue the correction on May 11.

“Upon seeing our exposé, Lucy’s widower, Rabbi Leo Dee, issued a statement exclusively to HonestReporting, echoing our call for an immediate apology. That tweet has racked up a further 137,000 views, indicating significant public outrage at Amanpour and CNN,” HonestReporting stated.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach told JNS that Amanpour was “forced to capitulate and retract” her and CNN’s “nauseating lie” less than 24 hours after Dee announced—during the memorial lecture for Boteach’s father Yoav—that he planned to sue CNN for $1.3 billion “for defaming and desecrating the memory of his martyred wife and two daughters.”

“The lesson here is that the Jewish community must never again allow the defamation of its good name and character,” Boteach said.

“Let all our enemies know that this is just the first of many actions we will be taking to ensure that the Jewish people and the State of Israel will never again (be) defamed. Antisemites beware.”

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