CNN is just embarrassing now, as Jon Stewart points out in last night’s episode.
I’m certain Jake Tapper, Christiane Amanpour, Anderson Cooper, Candy Crowley and Fareed Zakaria all do facepalms when they see their network doing shit like this.
Tracks
The streets are empty. It’s eerie. It’s as though a bomb had dropped somewhere.
CNN reporter SUSAN CANDIOTTI, reporting from Watertown, Mass., just days after the — oops! — Boston marathon bombings, via The Colbert Report.
Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert aired the very same soundbite, which, along with John King’s “dark-skinned male” report, should give CNN pause the next time they claim to uphold any standard of broadcast journalism.
In this age of instant reporting, and Tweets, and blogs, there’s a temptation to latch on to any bit of information — sometimes, to jump to conclusions. But when a tragedy like this happens, with public safety at risk and the stakes so high, it’s important to do this right. That’s why we have investigations. That’s why we relentlessly gather the facts. That’s why we have courts. That’s why we take care not to rush to judgment — not about the motivations of these individuals, and certainly not about entire groups of people.
PRESIDENT OBAMA, at the White House.
Hey, wanna guess which CNN reporter was sitting in the front row in the press room when the President said this?
Yep: John fucking King.
John King.
- It’s a little clearer now that John King of CNN reported some bullshit when he insisted that there was an arrest in the Boston bombing cases, and even more bullshit by saying one of those arrested was a “dark-skinned male.”
- The question is this: What will CNN do about it?
The F.B.I. scolded several news media outlets on Wednesday for mistakenly reporting that an arrest had been made in the Boston Marathon bombing case, and warned that such unverified reporting could have “unintended consequences” for its investigation.
Numerous organizations, including The Associated Press, The Boston Globe and several local Boston television stations, erroneously reported Wednesday afternoon that an arrest had been made, citing unnamed law enforcement sources. Two of the most prominent reports came from CNN and the Fox News Channel, both the subject of widespread criticism last June after misreporting the result of the Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s health care overhaul law.
CNN and Fox News spent about an hour discussing the news of an arrest with various correspondents and experts before backing off when they received further information.
NBC News held back on reporting news of an arrest during continuing coverage on its MSNBC cable channel. It reported that no arrest had been made and that no person had been firmly identified as under suspicion. (The New York Times did not report that there was a suspect or an arrest.)
The F.B.I. issued a statement later in the afternoon: “Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting.”
CNN broke news of an arrest at 1:45 p.m., with the correspondent John King citing law enforcement sources. About a half-hour earlier, Mr. King had reported what he called a “breakthrough in the identification of a suspect” and included details of a physical description.
“I was told by one of these sources, who is a law enforcement official, that this was a dark-skinned male,” Mr. King said.
By about 2:45, one of CNN’s law enforcement experts, Tom Fuentes, a former assistant director of the F.B.I., appeared on the air and reported that he had three sources who assured him no arrest had been made. The network issued a statement later in the afternoon that cited the three sources who had given CNN the information it used to break the news of the arrest: “CNN had three credible sources on both local and federal levels. Based on this information we reported our findings.”
From NBC News reporting no arrests, to CNN reporting an arrest of a "dark-skinned male": a flowchart of today's Boston Marathon bombings suspect news.
So the new conservative talking point regarding marriage equality is that same-sex marriages are not "illegal" in "all 50 states... When something is illegal you can go to jail for doing it." A point that CNN's Don Lemon smacks the Hell down like it deserves to be.
Anti-marriage equality folks will say anything and sink to unprecedented depths of illogic to defend their backwards, ignorant stance.
Did anyone happen to catch AC 360 on CNN tonight?
- Because I’m realizing that last night, Anderson brought back Poppy Harlow — she of the sympathetic-to-convicted-rapists live shot — to throw to a soundbite from the victim’s family, and Anderson seemed to go a little overboard in saying that, of course, when a terrible crime like this happens, CNN (or at least his show) is always about telling the story from the victim’s standpoint, not the criminals’.
- I’m wondering if, tonight, Anderson addressed the firestorm around Poppy Harlow’s journalistic fail, though. He’s so keen on social media — and, apparently, justice — that I’d think there was no way for him to avoid addressing it.
I’ve never experienced anything like it, Candy. It was incredibly emotional, incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures — star football players, very good students — we literally watched as, they believe, their life fell apart.
CNN reporter POPPY HARLOW, from outside the courtroom after sentences were handed down to rapists Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond.
“Journalism.” For shame, CNN.
John Oliver’s piece from last night’s Daily Show looking at how CNN gutted its investigative journalism team all but demanded a “Sorkian” monologue awesomely delivered by The Newsroom’s Jeff Daniels.
Jake Tapper leaving ABC News for CNN.
This fuckwad on CNN just asked anchor Don Lemon if he was a “Nation Of Islam” member because he was wearing a bowtie. “Whenever you see a black man wearing a bow tie, Don…” the white dude continued, before Don Lemon, being gracious and too forgiving, ended the segment.
Guess the guy was Jesus H. Christ.
Jeff Zucker will take over as President of CNN. Among the changes he'll make:
- Replace Piers Morgan Tonight with Community
- Revive Crossfire with hosts Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and that country singer
- Debut new show, Law & Order: Newsroom
- Hire Dan Harmon to executive produce AC: 360
- Fire Dan Harmon from AC: 360
Judging by their current homepage, CNN’s election night coverage is going to… blow.
Jon Stewart calling this portion of CNN’s ridiculous debate coverage a “virtual Dick In A Box video” was absolutely nail-hit-on-head perfection.
