Senator Obama Thanks Bloggers For Helping Spot CNN Error

Posted on January 2, 2007

CNN made a major blunder in a segment about uncaptured terrorist Osama Bin Laden. CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer read the story correctly but CNN's graphic read "Where's Obama?" instead of "Where's Osama?" Raw Story reports that Senator Barack Obama thanked bloggers for helping point out CNN's name blunder.

Bloggers rapidly highlighted the faulty graphic last night. At Daily Kos, a diary started by one user included comments from hundreds of users debating whether or not the graphic was constructed deliberately. While some noted the proximity of the program to New Year's Eve might have resulted in sleepy graphic artists at the cable network, others insisted that the 'B' and 'S' keys are far from one another on the keyboard, making a mere typographical error unlikely. Instead, they saw an anti-Obama bias in the news media as the source of the CNN graphic.
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In an interview with RAW STORY, Senator Obama's Press Secretary Tommy Vietor said he thought there was "no malicious intent" behind the graphic. "Wolf Blitzer is a good person and journalist. Someone made a mistake in a graphic, and that's as far as it goes," he said.
Vietor said the senator and Blitzer had not yet managed to connect on the phone, but that there was a message in his voicemail before 8 AM this morning expressing Blitzer's intent to apologize in person.
Senator Obama's Press Secretary also added "We really appreciate the people in the blogosphere who brought this to our attention, and act as our eyes and ears."

You can see a Daily Kos post pointing out the CNN error here. CNN's Wolf Blitzer apologized on behalf of CNN for the huge typo on the Bin Laden graphic.