CNN removes chart that stated Singapore is not a country after netizens point out that, yes, it is

US President Donald Trump has been criticised in the past for repeatedly calling CNN “fake news”, but it would seem that this there is a glimmer of truth to his accusations.

The American news network published a lengthy pillory against Trump yesterday (Oct 7), in which veteran CNN journalist Stephen Collinson found fault with the president’s actions after contracting Covid-19. 

Collinson critiqued Trump’s attempts to downplay the virus and the irresponsible approach to handling the crisis in the United States, among other questionable issues concerning the president's administration. 

While that all may be constructive points to make, netizens found fault with CNN’s own reporting — one that specified Singapore as “not a country”. 

For the sake of clarity, Singapore is a country — a nation with its own government and a land where people take up citizenship. Unless CNN was referring to Singapore, Michigan, which shouldn’t be the case considering that it's a ghost town these days. 

The point of CNN’s (erroneous) chart, however, was to list the countries with fewer new cases of Covid-19 than the cases found within the White House over the past 24 hours. It’s likely that CNN took the data off the Ministry of Health’s update from Tuesday, which confirmed seven new cases of locally-transmitted Covid-19 infection. 

[embed]https://twitter.com/sporeMOH/status/1313498868542312453[/embed]

As the host country of a historical summit between the leaders of North Korea and the United States in 2018, one would think that it put Singapore (as a country) on the global political map. Netizens were quick to point out the chart’s inaccuracies, which involved more than just the dismissal of Singapore’s sovereignty. 

[embed]https://twitter.com/AshleyvM/status/1313804730531864577[/embed]

[embed]https://twitter.com/mrbrown/status/1313781668608581633[/embed]

[embed]https://twitter.com/ClaytonFopp/status/1313737467569287168[/embed]

The chart has since been removed from CNN’s article, with only this correction note: 

ilyas@asiaone.com