CNN drops the ball

CNN drops the ball

From CNN Anchor John King reading the news off his cell phone, to bungling contributor Fran Townsend citing sources who probably don’t exist, CNN dropped the ball again.

Yesterday, CNN reported that an arrest had been made in Monday’s bombings that rocked the Boston Marathon. 30 minutes later, the once mighty news leader retracted its report, leaving millions of viewers wondering if CNN still employs editors who fact check the news before it goes out over the air.

CNN drops the ball

CNN drops the ball

NBC was widely praised for maintaining its journalistic standards in the moments after CNN fell on its own sword. “No arrest has been made,” said CBS anchor Pete Williams, citing multiple federal sources. “The FBI is looking for someone. They have a face. They don’t know where he is,” Williams said.

When the FBI made the unusual move of scolding the national news media for not verifying their sources, it was speaking directly to CNN.

In their mad dash for eyes and clicks, CNN failed to verify it’s reporter’s sources. “This may be very different in about about an hour if we learn there has been no arrest,” said Townsend.

“Initial reports, so often are wrong,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper said with a straight face.

A CNN spokesperson defended the network’s handling of the story in a statement sent to HuffPost‘s Michael Calderone:

“CNN had three credible sources on both local and federal levels. Based on this information we reported our findings. As soon as our sources came to us with new information we adjusted our reporting.”

Buzzfeed.com compiled this photo montage of CNN’s transformation from news leader to the world’s biggest Infotainment Network.