CNN Proves Journalism is Still More Reputable than Internet and T.V. Reporting

By Taylor Finch

Friday morning, Sept. 11, CNN stirred up the news by announcing that the Coast Guard was trying to fend-off a suspicious vessel on the Potomac River. All morning, CNN proceeded to show video clips and make breaking-news reports on what they assumed was an issue, as well as other news stations, including Fox News, following suit.

Concerns escalated when flights were delayed at the Regan International Airport, due to the story. Washington, D.C. police, officials, and even the Pentagon had no idea of what was going on. Despite this being the anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, CNN presented a story that, once again, had the nation thinking there was an emergency situation about to replay eight years later.

All stories came to a halt when the Coast Guard announced nothing serious was happening. They were just going through a "routine and low-level" Coast Guard exercise. The Coast Guard also said that they felt the need not to notify anyone of their exercise because it was so routine and was not intended to affect anyone. And, when CNN did call them to confirm the story, the Coast Guard told them there was no need to report anything.

CNN realized they were wrong, but ended up blaming it on the Coast Guard for performing such exercises on that particular day. CNN also attempted to defend their mishap by saying that it would have been "irresponsible not to report what they were hearing and seeing" on the videos and unencrypted radio chats, that were not meant for the public to hear anyways.

Coast Guard Vice Admiral John Currier says that now they will be more careful with the press. This is just a reflection of how reporting bad or false news is becoming a growing problem in American media, with all of the news stations trying to always be the first to report big news stories. Because of this, Journalism is made to look even better and will hopefully always be a dependable source to come to for the "real" news.