It was an ugly day for broadcast journalists around the country yesterday in the news world. Several TV networks and print outlets completely botched reports about an arrest made in the Boston Marathon bombing. The self-proclaimed "most trusted name in news" CNN was once again at the forefront, falling all over themselves with one EXCLUSIVE blunder after another. Poynter has a great recap of the mass confusion over the arrest reports with the AP, Boston Globe, and Fox News also running with errant reports.
CNN led the charge up the wrong tree with John King's cell phone becoming a black hole of accurate reporting. For a solid hour yesterday, CNN showed what is possible when a cable news network runs around like a chicken with its head cut off. Actually, that's an insult to headless chickens, who have their act together compared to CNN.
Enter Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, who delivered the goods with this segment on CNN's foibles Wednesday night…
Yes, CNN can be an easy target… and with good reason, the network can't help being their own worst enemy. Keep in mind this is the same network that thought it was a good idea to put Rick Reilly on a panel show in primetime. You might as well wave the white flag to your viewers. You might as well just give up on news and go in another direction because at this point your network is little more than a looping sketch comedy of news network. Fox News and MSNBC make no bones about serving the polarized crowd on the right and left respectively with their political advocacy. CNN has a gaping cavern in the middle to try and be the one, respectable, straight news source on cable and they continue to screw it up.
Stewart called CNN the Human Centipede of news, which is a hideous, stomach-turning description. I like to think it's possibly even worse and more grisly than that. CNN is like the Human Centipede 2 of news.
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