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CNN is facing backlash on social media over a now-deleted X Tuesday post about the two “Pennsylvania teens” who were accused of throwing bombs at a protest near Gracie Mansion in New York City on Saturday.
“Two teenagers from Pennsylvania crossed into New York City on Saturday morning for what could have been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather,” the post said. “But in less than an hour, their lives would change dramatically when the couple would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani's house. Here's what we know so far.”
The suspects, 18-year-old Emir Balat of Langhorne and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi of Newtown, traveled from Bucks County to Manhattan on Saturday, where police say they lit and threw explosive devices into a protest crowd outside City Hall. Zohran MamdaniThe residence.
Federal prosecutors charged the suspects with material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and use of a weapon of mass destruction.
The post has already been deleted. CNN continued with this explanation on
Social media users were quick to denounce the “bizarre” framing of the incident by CNN, which did not mention the words “terror” or “terrorist” anywhere in its post.
“This is the strangest framing,” Examiner columnist Tim Carney wrote in
Jewish News UK deputy editor Daniel Sugarman noted that the publication would have been “extremely strange” even if it had been published the day after the attack, but “given everything we now know about these [two] people and their motives, is journalistic negligence.
“Wow. ISIS-inspired perpetrators commit a literal terrorist act, and this is what CNN comes up with?” “Media watchdog group HonestReporting questioned”. “Oh, those poor 'Pennsylvania teenagers,' whose lives have 'dramatically changed' because they made the conscious decision to drop bombs. When will the media stop employing narrative narratives to infantilize perpetrators of ideologically motivated crimes?”
“Who writes this garbage?” Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., wrote on X: “They are radical Islamic terrorists.”
Journalist Scot Bertram mocked the post by rewriting it to reflect the events of September 11, 2001: “Nineteen men arrived at East Coast airports on Tuesday morning for what could have been a normal day enjoying a cross-country flight. But in less than an hour, their lives would change dramatically.”
RedState writer Bonchie argued that CNN was doing “everything possible to get these Islamists [seem] like wayward victims.”
“I really don't understand this approach from CNN,” wrote News2Share editor-in-chief Ford Fischer. “Couldn't someone who does something life-changing have 'a normal day' if they don't do it?”
“Man, you have to hate when two teenagers, who could have been enjoying the warm weather, drastically change their lives because they accidentally brought in a pipe bomb that would have killed several people,” Barstool Sports content creator Jack Mac mocked. “Oops! I did some terrorism! I can't believe my life changed!”
When contacted for comment on the now-deleted post, CNN referred Fox News Digital to its new statement about X.
Fox News Digital's Stepheny Price, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Greg Wehner and CB Cotton contributed to this report.
