Wednesday, April 17, 2013

CNN Bombing Arrest Retraction

Tonight on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart ridiculed CNN for their exclusive reporting that there had been an arrest in the Boston Marathon bombing, and then having to retract the story when it turned out there hadn't been an arrest yet. Well, having to retract a big exclusive story is embarrassing, but worse, it's boring. I mean, it's an exclusive story, right? That means nobody else has the story, so why retract it? Why backtrack at all? Next time, rather than admitting they got a bum steer and reported erroneously, they ought to claim the guy who was arrested made a daring escape, and there is now a giant manhunt on for the criminal. And when the authorities say there was no arrest yet, CNN could simply say that of course the authorities would claim there had been no arrest, when they so carelessly let this villain slip through their fingers! Think of the ratings they'd get then! (Hey, at least it would be more exciting than finding out they'd been leading us up the garden path all along.)