Factcheck: CNN doesn't know history

CNN ran a banner that says: Northam calls first African slaves “indentured servants”. They seem to be treating his statement as some sort of racist lie, but the first Africans taken to Virginia really were indentured servants, not slaves:

In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially treated as indentured servants, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites. However, slave laws were soon passed – in Massachusetts in 1641 and Virginia in 1661 –and any small freedoms that might have existed for blacks were taken away.
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/indentured-servants-in-the-us/

Is CNN that ignorant of American history?

Do you expect them to get called out by the media-based “fact-checkers”?

Here is a link to the CNN report:

Yeah, I think everyone knows that there was a brief period of time in 17th century Virginia where there was codified chattel slavery. I mean, I leaned that in, probably, third grade.

I learned it in high-school history class.

I was able to confirm the fact with a quick internet search. Shouldn’t CNN do the same before running a headline?

1 Like

Sure you did.

1 Like

Washington Post disputed Trump’s statistics from the State of the Union because 31.4% does not equal 1 in 3 and “sexual abuse” does not equal “sexually assaulted”.

“One in three women is sexually assaulted on the long journey north.” . . . In the interviews, 31.4 percent of women said they were “sexually abused” on the journey, not “sexually assaulted” as Trump says.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/06/fact-checking-president-trumps-state-union-address/?utm_term=.aecaa4553883

By this standard of nitpicking, the Washington Post should be going bonkers over CNN’s ignorance of American history in this story. I am not holding my breath on that. . .

1 Like

Yea, I’ve know of FOX getting geography incorrect. So there.

I learned a lot of history about Jamestown and English settlement around the Chesapeake Bay.

If you grew up in another part of the US, you may not even know what Jamestown was.

Jamestown was a quite important piece of history.

That there was a 20 year period of indentured servants before 200 years of slavery in Virginia is basically trivia.

1 Like

Did Fox run a headline about someone making a mistake in geography, when Fox was the one actually making the mistake?

The CNN headline shows that made no effort to check the facts before running with the story.

Actually there were over forty years from when the first Africans who arrived (1619) and when laws where change in Virginia to create slavery (1661). Massachusetts was way ahead of Virginia in this change.

Virginia always had a free black people as a result of this history. Laws against intermarriage were not enforced until after slavery introduced, which means many white people have African ancestors from African indentured servants.

One example appears to be Johnny Depp:

https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/johnny-depp-related-slave-sue-freedom-article-1.1383257

Another reported example is President Obama’s mother:

Well, actually it is fact. I keep hearing that we can disagree about opinions but not about facts.

I think the point is that CNN thought it was worth commenting on…and it was referred to as a poor choice of words. Acdtually, it was just fact.
Why was it even brought up if it was trivia and of no importance? Obviously because CNN thought it was more than that.

Yeah, meanwhile I know of a sitting president that went on and on about the disaster caused by 7/11 in a speech. I use to think presidents knew history.

5 Likes

Yes, they did. (The map shows what should be Iraq labeled as Egypt.)

1 Like

I wonder if the government is going to demand me return 3 1/2 years of combat pay, since I was actually in Egypt and not Iraq.

3 Likes

While that is no doubt an error. It’s also not comparing apples to apples.

If someone had come out and said that country was Iraq, and then FOX said “no, that’s not correct…it’s Egypt.” Then it would be a proper comparison.

Though I must admit that is a pretty blatant error on FOXs part.

In CNNs case they came out and said something was false without even looking into it with the simplest search. That’s not an error. It’s a failure of due diligence.

2 Likes

You’re interpreting a headline from make believe. Northam said those words. CNN reported it. It’s called factual reporting.

They didn’t say anything was false. They quoted what Natham said. Nothing false there.

So what was their point?

Is next a headline on water being wet?

What’s yours? I answered you.

Well if they were aware they where wholly dishonest in their coverage.