CNN apologises for 'Obama' typo
03/01/2007 11:30 - (SA)
New York - CNN apologised on Tuesday for mistakenly promoting a story on the search for Osama bin Laden with the headline "Where's Obama?"
A spokesman for Illinois Senator Barack Obama, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, said the apology was accepted.
The blunder came on Monday evening on Wolf Blitzer's news show The Situation Room. Both Soledad O'Brien and Blitzer offered separate apologies during CNN's morning show on Tuesday.
CNN called it a "bad typographical error" by its graphics department.
"We want to apologise for that bad typo," Blitzer said. "We also want to apologise personally to Senator Barack Obama. I'm going to be making a call to him later this morning to offer my personal apology."
Tommy Vietor, Obama's press secretary, said he appreciated the bloggers and activists who brought the error to light so quickly and helped make sure it was corrected.
"Though I'd note that the 's' and 'b' keys aren't all that close to each other, I assume it was just an unfortunate mistake, and don't think there was any truly malicious intent," Vietor said.
Obama says he is still considering whether to join a field of Democrats contending for the party's 2008 presidential nomination.
If he does enter the race, his middle name might also prove troublesome. Republican operatives are already referring to him by his full name: Barack Hussein Obama.
News24 is now available on your cellphone. Sign up and win a Samsung phone!
Instead of the "s" in Osama, CNN put a "b" making it Obama.
Illinois Senator Barack Obama

U.S. Senator Barack Obama's family name may sound similar to that of the given name of Osama bin Laden. 

According to prominent American left-wing online blog Daily Kos, which was the first to report it, CNN mixed the two up on Monday, leading into a segment on bin Laden with the title, "Where's Obama?" on ''The Situation Room'', a show hosted by pundit Wolf Blitzer. The blog posted a photo of the mistake. The author of the blog called it "character defamation." 

CNN has called the mistake "a bad typographical error". Soledad O'Brien and Blitzer apologised separately during CNN's ''American Morning'' on Tuesday.

"We want to apologize for that bad typo," Mr Blitzer said. "We also want to apologize personally to Senator Barack Obama. I'm going to be making a call to him later this morning to offer my personal apology."

Mr Obama's press secretary said the apology was accepted. He also added that he appreciated the online blogs who brought the error to light.

"Though I'd note that the 's' and 'b' keys aren't all that close to each other, I assume it was just an unfortunate mistake, and don't think there was any truly malicious intent," said Tommy Vietor, Obama's press secretary.