CBS Evening News Shows Picture of Elijah Cummings During Story on John Lewis’ Cancer Diagnosis

CBS Evening News ran a segment on Congressman John Lewis’ cancer diagnosis on Monday’s broadcast but showed a photo of the late Congressman Elijah Cummings instead of one of Lewis. Both congressman are African American and the error is particularly embarrassing for the network.

During the story on Lewis’ diagnosis of stage four pancreatic cancer, the photo of Cummings appeared on the screen and a caption identified him as Lewis. Cummings died in October this year after many years’ service in the House of Representatives. He was 68-years-old.

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.

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) December 31, 2019

CBS later apologized, saying they had made a mistake and ‘one photograph was misidentified as Congressman John Lewis. We have replaced the photo in all broadcasts and platforms. We deeply regret the error.”

This is not the first time Cummings and Lewis have been misidentified in this way. Fox News has made this mistake as well, and many social media users and others have detected a racial undertone to errors like this one. In addition to misidentifying one African American congressman for another, CBS used a picture of a deceased congressman for a living one – a major editorial mistake.

John Lewis has said he is determined to fight the cancer. He is 79-years-old.