The Wall Street Journal declared last Friday that it would “be happy to accept” an apology from CNN, after the cable network’s Christiane Amanpour declared on Twitter that the Journal had “jump[ed] into bed” with the “Iranian extremist mouthpiece” Fars news agency. Both the Journal and Fars criticized CNN for mistranslating an interview between Amanpour and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, where the mistranslation had Rouhani condemning the “Holocaust” and declaring that “whatever criminality they [the Nazis] committed against the Jews, we condemn.” The mistranslation was widely reported, explicitly cited, and broadly described – including by Amanpour herself – as an indication of Iranian moderation.

And in my interview I asked him point blank about Ahmadinejad’s threats and Holocaust denial. His answers are instructive and again signal to me a desire to change tone.

Rouhani’s Presidential Advisor Mohammad Reza Sadeq has also clarified that Rouhani did not denounce the Holocaust.

“Mr. Rouhani did not at all used the word Holocaust even a single time all throughout his five day visit to New York that he was posed to the reporters questions and when they talked about the incidents in the World War II,” Sadeq told FNA Saturday night. “Mr. Rouhani never used the word Holocaust,” he reiterated.

Iranian media continued to criticize CNN over the weekend, and some of the country’s officials are now calling for legal action against CNN for “the distortion of the statements by the president of our country.” It is unclear whether CNN intends to issue an apology either to the Journal or to the office of the Iranian president.

[Photo: amanpour.blogs.cnn.com]