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Wednesday, Apr 17, 2013 7:20 PM UTC

Sloppy news coverage becomes news after CNN misreports arrest

CNN incorrectly reported an arrest in the Boston case, and Twitter went nuts

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Topics: Boston Explosions, Boston Marathon, bombings, CNN, Twitter, Editor's Picks, ,

Sloppy news coverage becomes news after CNN misreports arrest

As media outlets continue to monitor the Boston Marathon bombing case around the clock for updates, a few gossip sites news outlets jumped the gun, making up news to report before real news actually happened.

After officials discovered a video from Lord & Taylor with an image of a suspect, conflicting reports emerged on the status of the case. This afternoon, the AP and CNN misreported that a suspect had been arrested in the Boston explosion case, with CNN even citing the person in custody as a “dark-skinned male” while CBS said Boston police were searching for a white male. NBC and CBS said no arrests had been made and CNN and the AP later backtracked on the arrest claims, saying federal sources deny that a suspect is in custody.

Twitter had a field day:

 

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com. More Prachi Gupta.

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