‘Scripted’ controversy: CNN releases emails of correspondence with Florida student

Authored by washingtonpost.com and submitted by YouWithTheFace
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CNN’s Jake Tapper listens to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) during a CNN town hall meeting on Feb. 21 in Sunrise, Fla.. (Michael Laughlin/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

CNN appears to have had enough.

On Friday afternoon, the network released email correspondence between one of its producers, Carrie Stevenson, and a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after last week’s school shooting in Parkland, Fla. The exchanges roared into the news following Wednesday night’s CNN town hall meeting on gun violence. Colton Haab, 17, told a TV station in Florida that he was disappointed with the network: “CNN had originally asked me to write a speech and questions and it ended up being all scripted,” he told ABC affiliate WPLG-TV. He did not attend the town hall.

The “scripted” remarks acquired their own Internet nutritional system, feeding an attack that CNN was seeking to insert bias into the proceedings. CNN strenuously denied that claim on Thursday, both before and after President Trump picked up the story based on a report on the Fox News program “Tucker Carlson Tonight”:

There is absolutely no truth to this story -- and we can prove that. CNN did not provide or script questions for anyone in last night's town hall, nor have we ever. Those are the facts. #FactsFirst 🍎 — CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 23, 2018

In a post on Friday, the Erik Wemple Blog published excerpts from the emails in which Stevenson negotiated Haab’s participation in the event. Since then, the story has continued to develop: A CNN spokesman tells the Erik Wemple Blog that the network has received inquiries from other outlets stemming from what the network says are doctored portions of that correspondence that paint CNN in a negative light.

To counter those leaks, CNN has authorized the publication of the emails below. Here’s a list of proposed questions from Haab:

As Stevenson and Haab were discussing the matter, Colton Haab’s father, Glenn Haab, passed along several pages of “background” points that the family wanted Colton Haab to recite to contextualize the question that he was supposed to pose to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). After Stevenson examined the proposal, she wrote this email to Glenn Haab:

According to a CNN spokesman, Fox News and HuffPost on Friday presented the network with a misleading version of the second email as part of their due diligence in pursuing the story. Whereas the correspondence supplied by CNN, above, makes clear that Stevenson was insisting that Colton Haab use a question that he himself had already “submitted” — prefaced by a lead-in that the student had already articulated in a “Fox & Friends” appearance, and that Haab proposed in a phone call with Stevenson — the allegedly doctored version of the correspondence suggests a different scenario.

CNN has disclosed the email that Carlson’s Fox News program had inquired about. It chops off the part about “that he submitted,” as below:

A CNN source claims that the edit leaves the network open to the charge that it “dictated” the question and obscures the fact that Colton Haab submitted it.

A CNN spokesperson issued this statement: “The Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action Town Hall was intended to be a forum for students, parents and teachers to speak directly to the elected leaders and stakeholders that are at the center of this critical issue. It is unfortunate that an effort to discredit CNN and the town hall with doctored emails has taken any attention away from the purpose of the event. However, when presented with doctored email exchanges, we felt the need to set the record straight.”

Jam_Dev on February 24th, 2018 at 04:32 UTC »

The original story was upvoted 40,000 times, be interesting to see how the truth compares.

abbzug on February 24th, 2018 at 04:06 UTC »

Damage already done. Lies travel faster than truth.

skrulewi on February 24th, 2018 at 04:00 UTC »

http://www.businessinsider.com/parkland-shooting-survivors-family-shops-doctored-cnn-emails-to-media-2018-2?r=UK&IR=T

Business insider also sums it up here.

TL:DR

CNN offered to let him ask his question about arming teachers, but just one question. They didn't want him reading a 4 page speech. The kid and his father refused to participate, and then sent the emails to fox news, with some curious edits in them. CNN provided the original copies of the emails, which show that they didn't attempt to script him, only to limit him to the single question about arming teachers.