CBS News has apologized for mistakenly showing a picture of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings during a segment on Rep. John Lewis’ recent cancer diagnosis.
The error occurred Monday night on the East Coast airing of the CBS Evening News when a picture of Maryland Congressman Cummings, who died in October, was shown next to a quote from Georgia representative and Civil Rights icon Lewis saying, “…doctors discovered Stage IV pancreatic cancer.”
Lewis released the statement on Dec. 29 revealing his cancer diagnosis.
The error drew criticism from viewers on social media. After the newscast ended, CBS issued an apology.
“Tonight on the 6:30 p.m. ET broadcast of the CBS Evening News, one photograph was misidentified as Congressman John Lewis. We have replaced the photo in all broadcasts and platforms. We deeply regret the error,” the CBS Evening News account tweeted Monday night after the segment aired.
Social media users replied to the tweet by saying the mistake was “unacceptable” and “racist.”
Born in Troy, Alabama, to sharecroppers parents in 1940, Lewis graduated from theology school and was ordained as a Baptist minister. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Fisk University.
As a student, he became an activist for equal rights and organized sit-ins in the segregated South. He is the last survivor of the Big Six group of Civil Rights activists led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.
The congressman said in his statement that he is determined to fight the cancer.
“While I am clear-eyed about the prognosis, doctors have told me that recent medical advances have made this type of cancer treatable in many cases, that treatment options are no longer as debilitating as they once were, and that I have a fighting chance,” he said.
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