| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
29 Aug 2006 09:40:16 AM |
| Object: |
Blitzer once again gets egg on his face. How many times is that now? |
Last week on CNN, Wolf Blitzer broke some exciting news:
he'd nabbed an exclusive interview with an acquaintance of John Mark
Karr, JonBenet Ramsey's alleged killer.
Here's Wolf cranking it up to fever-pitch:
A woman who says Karr discussed the Ramsey case with her back in 2001
is speaking out today, and as we reported yesterday Wendy Hutchens
says she recorded phone calls, kept emails from Karr detailing his
alleged connections to the Ramsey family.
Wow!
You could almost hear Wolf's little beard tingling with excitement.
But there was one tiny snag:
"Wendy Hutchens" turned out to be a prank caller by the name of Thomas
Cipriano.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn/wolf_weve_just_been_howard_sterned_42609.asp
Of course, Wolf didn't find this out until Cipriano told him during
the on-air interview that Karr said "he was instructed to kill
JonBenet by Howard Stern."
Ha ha, Wolf looked like a fool, very funny and all that.
But this story really bothers me.
Blitzer giddily interviewed someone on live television, in the middle
of a supposedly serious news show, and apparently nobody at CNN had
bothered to check out the story.
What if Cipriano hadn't pulled out the Howard Stern line?
The viewing public could have been fed a line of BS by a prankster,
which was subsequently legitimized by a breathless Wolf Blitzer, and
would have had no idea the whole story was bunk.
I guess my question is: how often does this happen at CNN?
Weekly?
Daily?
Do they check out any of the people they interview?
Or can you simply call CNN, tell them that you have the inside line on
a big story, and end up having a nice cozy chat with Wolf Blitzer?
Because it's all very well to have a chuckle at Wolf when he gets
caught out doing a story on JonBenet Ramsey, but how many times has
this happened when he's interviewing "experts" on things that really
matter, like Iraq, or terrorism, or the economy?
So much for "the most trusted name in news."
By EarlG
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
Harry
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
