CNN appears to have jumped the gun in its reporting on the sentencing Wednesday of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, mistakenly reporting Hastert had avoided prison.
In a story posted to CNN.com at 12:23 p.m. ET, CNN reported that Hastert “was sentenced to two years of supervised release.” The same information was published via the @cnnbrk Twitter account:
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert sentenced to 2 years supervised release in hush-money case. https://t.co/5PtwdoENvB
Advertisement— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) April 27, 2016
While CNN’s TV reporting was focused on a foreign policy speech by Donald Trump, the incorrect report was repeated on air in the CNN ticker:
As one commenter noted in a reply, “CNN…the judge is STILL ruling.” And that sentence ultimately included 15 months in prison. Even 45 minutes after the network’s tweet, it had not corrected its report to note the prison time.
CNN’s Jake Tapper deleted a tweet that linked to CNN’s story, saying “new info” was coming in:
New info coming in on Hastert sentencing so deleted previous tweet w link to CNN story — will update as soon as CNN updates story
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 27, 2016
@cnnbrk are you idiots going to update your "breaking news" twitter feed to show the actual sentencing? 15 months in prison.
— Frederic J. Happy (@RickHappy) April 27, 2016
.@CNN still has inaccurate report of Hastert sentencing up: https://t.co/rrLlJrisb8 pic.twitter.com/VTidtaW12m
— Caitlin Swieca (@CaitlinSwieca) April 27, 2016
UPDATE: 1:25 p.m. ET An hour after publishing its incorrect story, the web version has been updated. An editor’s note reads “CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave incomplete information about Hastert’s sentence.”
CNN’s tweet has not been deleted, and the @cnnbrk account has not corrected its report on the Hastert sentence.
UPDATE: 1:35 p.m. ET CNN has tweeted out a link to the corrected story. The network has also tweeted this clarification:
This earlier tweet gave incomplete information. Hastert sentenced to 15 months in prison in addition to 2 years supervised release.
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) April 27, 2016
CNN was not the only organization to bungle its reporting:
Seems like this tweet from @BuzzFeedNews at 12:08 ET led outlets, incl CNN, to jump the gun re: Hastert sentencing. pic.twitter.com/m4eKOlp1VF
— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) April 27, 2016