My point was to highlight the subtlety of the CNN statement, alluding that the very concept of looting is alien in the Japanese culture, so much so that a word does not exist for the act. It is false, of course but the announcers lack of syntactical skill is used to make a semantic interpretation of the Japanese, and directs the audience to make a equivocation: African-Americans loot.
No one here is saying it, but as an African-American, that is what I heard.