diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
index 5e825acb329b499bac6178bc2935366d0c5bad44..9a5b8121e1e262eba820e1cc909b8c85d0052b4e 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_monitor_json.c
@@ -1220,13 +1220,13 @@ qemuMonitorJSONExtractCPUInfo(virJSONValuePtr reply,
         int thread;
         if (!entry) {
             virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR, "%s",
-                           _("character device information was missing array element"));
+                           _("cpu information was missing an array element"));
             goto cleanup;
         }
 
         if (virJSONValueObjectGetNumberInt(entry, "thread_id", &thread) < 0) {
-            /* Only qemu-kvm tree includs thread_id, so treat this as
-               non-fatal, simply returning no data */
+            /* Some older qemu versions don't report the thread_id,
+             * so treat this as non-fatal, simply returning no data */
             ret = 0;
             goto cleanup;
         }