In an embarrassing mistake, American broadcasters CNN recently referred to Singapore as “not a country” in a data chart. The incorrect statement has since been deleted (and apologised for), although it hasn’t stopped users from venting their frustration (and amusement) online.
The mistake was made in an article discussing U.S. President Donald Trump’s “erratic behaviour” during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Towards the end of the page, a data chart was published, listing the countries with less positive cases than the White House in the past 24 hours.
The embarrassment doesn’t stop there. The chart also misspelt Papua New Guinea as “Papau New Guinea”, and does not use the same description (*Not a country*) for Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Netizens have predictably been upset with the gaffe, and this is certainly a huge mistake from a global news outlet such as CNN. However, the page has since been updated with an apology, with the offending data chart replaced:
“CORRECTION: A chart previously published in this article incorrectly stated Singapore was not a country. The chart has been removed.“
Singapore has been an independent country ever since the 9th of August 1965, 55 years ago. More than half a century has gone by since the country gained status as a sovereign state, and it genuinely boggles the mind that an entity as global as CNN has made such an obvious error.
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