This is CNN... apologizing for yet another on-air blunder. The cable network issued its mea culpa a day after saying that President Barack Obama was considering arming "pro-US troops" in Ukraine.
CNN aired a segment on Monday about the talks between President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the resolution of the Ukraine crisis. The network showed a full-screen map of Eastern Europe, with Ukraine in yellow, Russia in red and Crimea in orange. The headline read: “Obama considers arming pro-US troops.”
Social media buzzed over what viewers deemed a Freudian slip. On Tuesday morning, CNN sought to make amends.
“The debate in western capitals is actually about whether the United States and other NATO countries should send arms to the Ukrainian military, which is trying to protect its territory from separatists whom the government in Kiev says are backed by Russia,” morning anchor Carol Costello said. “The recipients of any military equipment and aid would be the national military of Ukraine, certainly not pro-U.S. troops. I regret that error.”
Obama requested his administration consider the possibility of supplying lethal defense weapons to the Ukrainian government. Merkel visited the president at the White House Monday in what is viewed as a last-ditch attempt to secure a truce in Ukraine, which has been embroiled in internal conflict since last April.
CNN laid off eight percent of its staff in October, many of whom had decades of experience with the 24-hour news network.