HUGO ORELLANA, HONDURAN RED CROSS OFFICIAL (through translator): We have one person dead, a man in his 20s, from a gunshot in the head. And eight people wounded.
PENHAUL: He says. Amid the violent clashes, protestors report more may have died. This man soak soaked in blood says a child died in his arms.
JUAN ANGEL ATUNEZ, PROTESTER (through translator): I ran over beside the boy to try and help him because I didn’t want him to die but he died.
It is unclear if a child died at the protests, as most reports state only one adult died. Regardless, Hunter’s first hand observation of Atunez wiping blood on himself prior to being photographed and videotaped shows that Atunez staged his appearance and story for dramatic effect, which both Reuters and CNN buying into it.
UPDATE: CNN has responded to this blog post, via Media Bistro (h/t Hunter again!):
CNN had two teams on the ground. We were present throughout the march. CNN staff saw and heard the shooting. The blogger says he was not present at the time the shooting took place. We interviewed a bystander who said he had held a child who was dying. At no point in our interview did the witness allege he saw more than one victim. At the time there was confusion about the age of the victim, who was passed through the crowd, bleeding profusely from his fatal head wound. Many bystanders and journalists initially believed from the size and appearance of the body that the victim was quite young, consistent with the witness’s story.
CNN regrets that our report did not point out that we could not independently verify the man’s account. Note that CNN carefully reported the official Red Cross death tally of one, but included the assertions from protestors that the death toll may have been higher, as did the blogger.
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Related Posts:
Reuters Runs Staged Photo Of Bloody Honduran Protester
Let them come to Tegucigalpa
Hands Off Honduras
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