Rabbi Leo Di is considering suing CNN over the uproar caused by senior anchor Christiane Amanpour when she described the murders of his daughters Maya and Rina and Iman Lucy in an April attack as a "shootout." Dee announced the possibility of legal action being taken at an event held on Monday by Rabbi Shmuel Botach, which was also broadcast on Facebook.
Maya, Rina and Lucy Dee z"l, photo: courtesy of the family
The Jewish Journal news website reported that Dee showed attendees an email he received from Amanpour apologizing for what she said and claiming she had "failed her tongue." Amanpour also expressed her condolences, noting that there was "no malicious intent" on her part. Dee replied with a lengthy email saying he did not accept her apology because she had spread misinformation to millions of people. He also demanded that she publicly apologize. Dee said she had not yet replied to him.
In a conversation with CNN's Jerusalem office head, Alan Green, Dee asked if he knew the difference between the murder of his family members by a terrorist and a shootout between soldiers and terrorists. Green replied that he could not answer.
CNN headquarters, photo: AP
Another incident on the Internet happened a few weeks ago when a presenter stated after an interview with Dee that "we will bring more similar cases from the Palestinian side." Dee said that if CNN did not apologize, he planned to sue the network seeking $1.3 billion in damages, noting that it was the same amount for which Fox News was sued in the Dominion affair (after the network echoed conspiracy theories that the company used the vote-counting machines to award the victory to Joe Biden).
That affair ended with an $800 million settlement paid to the company. Dee told those present that Amanpour's slander of his family by implying that they allegedly fired at the terrorist was worse than what Fox News had done to Dominion. Dee explained that he would consider dropping the lawsuit if the network changed its coverage.
CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, Photo: Reuters
Rabbi Botach, who is friendly with Leo Dee, told the Jewish Journal that "the lawsuit is not only because of emotional distress and defamation but also because of incitement." He added: "I quite believe that the constant incitement against Israel that describes it as a terrible nation in the moral sense and leads people to kill more Israelis."
Boteach told the Jewish Journal: "It's amusing that CNN makes public corrections when it misspells someone's name, and so does the New York Times, but CNN doesn't fix that."
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