CNN runs misleading report on Florida COVID teacher deaths and gets torched online: 'This is absurd framing'



CNN faced some fierce backlash online after running a misleading report about the coronavirus deaths among teachers in Florida.

The report documented four deaths in one single day among teachers in the Broward County School District. CNN anchor Brianna Keilar posted the video of her reaction to the news on her social media account.

BREAKING: WFOR is reporting that 4 teachers from Broward county have died of covid in a single day. Three were un… https://t.co/A8DgKo0Skr

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) 1628857377.0

"That is a stunning number," said Keilar in the video. "This is obviously going to be met with a lot of grief in that community, and it's showing the cost of COVID there, especially for the unvaccinated."

That report came from a statement from Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco.

Fusco later admitted that the union had mistakenly reported four teachers had died of the coronavirus. Instead, two teachers and a teacher aide had died of the coronavirus. Also, none of them had been vaccinated. All were in their 40s.

Critics online immediately noted that the "absurd framing" of the story at CNN implied that the teachers had contracted the coronavirus at schools, but they had not.

"This is an absurd framing," replied former CNN producer Steve Krakauer. "Broward county schools are not open until next week. You could say this about any occupation. It has absolutely nothing to do with them being 'teachers' or about what schools should do regarding masks, vaccines or anything else."

"This stat is reported with the context that Florida's state government opposes mandatory masking of children," replied former ThinkProgress journalist Zaid Jilani. "But schools in Broward county are on summer break. The teachers didn't get covid-19 in schools from kids. Their status as teachers isn't relevant..."

"Trash reporting from CNN somehow (oopsie!) fails to mention schools in Broward County have yet to open. Garbage. Shameful silence from the rest of the media," responded Karol Markowicz.

While CNN offered a minor correction on their website, the false information on Keilar's tweet remained online.

"An earlier version of this story mischaracterized one of the four people who died based on information provided by the Broward Teachers Union. That person has been identified as a female Broward County Public Schools graduate with close ties to the school district through her job."

Florida is experiencing a spike in the coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, leading many to blame the policies of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Others accuse media outlets like CNN of trying to damage DeSantis because he was a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Here's a local news report about the Florida teacher deaths:

Broward Teacher's Union President Anna Fusco Rectifies Number Of Teachers Who Recently Died From COVwww.youtube.com

CNN's Brianna Keilar gets lambasted online for blaming COVID spike on 'Republican FOX viewers'



CNN anchor Brianna Keilar was lambasted online for blaming the spike in the coronavirus infections on "Republican FOX viewers" who she said were disproportionately unvaccinated.

Keilar made the comments on her CNN show and posted them to her Twitter account.

"President Biden has a border crisis on his hands — no doubt. But conservatives are capitalizing on it by demonizing immigrants as diseased spreaders of covid — with no facts to back that up," Keilar tweeted.

President Biden has a border crisis on his hands - no doubt. But conservatives are capitalizing on it by demonizi… https://t.co/3NEK3VkupW

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) 1628511347.0

When challenged on Twitter, she fired off the accusation against Fox News viewers without any citation.

"Unvaccinated Americans, disproportionately Republican Fox viewers, are fueling the surge, not migrants who are near 100 percent tested and quarantined if positive," Keilar responded. "Why not talk about the border crisis without dabbling in BS and racist tropes about immigrants."

Many on social media took her to task for making overly broad generalizations that are not supported by even a passing acquaintance with cable news ratings.

"When making your silly statements unsupported by evidence, be careful not to mention that vaccination rates for black and Hispanic communities are lower than that of their white counterparts," replied Dana Loesch with a link to back up her claim.

"Where did you get the idea that a disproportionate number of unvaccinated Americans are 'Republican Fox viewers'? That isn't even possible given FNC's viewership numbers," responded another critic.

"Oh yikes. She thinks there are more Fox News viewers then there are Black and Hispanic Americans (and white Americans) who don't watch cable news regularly," replied former CNN producer Steve Krakeur. "Twitter is really a tremendous service for viewers, because you get to see who the people on TV really are."

Others pointed out reports documenting how some illegal aliens were not being sufficiently tested for the coronavirus, while others were being released into the U.S. despite testing positively for the virus.

Experts have called for renewed social distancing restrictions after seeing a spike in the coronavirus infections from the Delta variant, especially in states with very low vaccination rates like Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Republican political leaders in those states have resisted those calls.

Here's more about the current coronavirus spike:

Spike In Covid Cases Rips Through Southern Stateswww.youtube.com