The "shots fired at boat in Potomac" crap was due to CNN being idiots

[WeDidIt]

Somebody hears "bang bang bang" on a scanner tuned into the Coast Guard and CNN reports shots fired at a boat without checking WTF is going on.

This one is CNN's fault, plain and simple.

[tridim]

1. They're just doing their job, spreading the terra.

[fugop]

2. Incomplete headline at CNN

Their headline is missing some words:

Coast Guard to review exercise after scare (that we started because we're too freaking lazy to check our sources first)

And how about this report over at Kos:

CNN Withholds Information, Journalism Tarnished Again In America
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/11/780489/-CNN-Withholds-Information,-Journalism-Tarnished-Again-In-America

[MsLeopard]

15. Thanks for the link

Great discussion going on about it in the comments. Best line: "The whole thing smacks of a Cheney left over."

Meaning whoever at CNN withheld the truth.

[create.peace]

3. just heard on npr this talked about - they want to find out

how the training might have been construed as an actual incident....9/11/09

just exchange a few words:

how the actual incident might have been construed as training....9/11/01

after the first 9/11 'incident' why would anyone schedule a training session.

[WeDidIt]

8. Coast Guard just said they conduct these exercises EVERY DAY!

365 days per year.

These exercises have been conducted on 6 previous anniversaries of 9/11 without incident.

[create.peace]

11. then what makes these 'exersises' anything other than patrol? just not getting it....

aren't they saying there was no incident this time also?

[flpoljunkie]

4. Apparently CNN doesn't know real terror threat communications are encrypted. Routine training

exercises are not. Take that, Fran Townsend. She was in high dudgeon about this earlier on CNN. Haven't seen her since.

[quantass]

5. Its about the ratings -- everyone wants to be the 1st to break something

but yes it is irresponsible to do so but thats the name of the game.

[rufus dog]

6. The Vice Admiral should tear CNN a new one

They and Faux are going to spin it as this type of training shouldn't occur on 9/11 which is a ridiculous argument when you thing about it.

[fugop]

7. Coast Guard briefing

CG is holding a briefing. I"m sure they'll be penitent, but I wish they'd rip into the media for turning training exercises that apparently occur every day into a 9/11 panic situation.

[WeDidIt]

9. They said these happen EVERY DAY

so they did this on 6 prior 9/11 anniversaries WITHOUT INCIDENT.

CNN fucked up and screwed the pooch.

[FrenchieCat]

10. The Anti-Walter Cronkite Channel! I remember the Pres. talking about

Cronkite at his recent speech at Cronkite's memorial.....where he told the story of Cronkite making sure there was real fire prior to reporting the story.....

This is very eery indeed, that CNN reported on this prior to actually checking with the appropriate authorities. How desperate can they be?

[Skidmore]

12. CNN has always been a PNAC network.

They carry the torch.

[NYC Democrat]

13. CNN should know that the good people of the Coast Guard most likely do not yell

"Bang bang bang" while in an actual combat situation.

[Parker CA]

14. No shit!! The person that translated "bang, bang, bang" into actual gun shots being fired needs to

be fired. Total fail. Do they break news when one of them is at home on the weekend and hears "bang, bang, bang" from the yard next door where kids are playing? Horrible reporting fail.

[high density]

16. We wouldn't even know about this if it weren't for the idiots at CNN

I'm sure the right wingers will start piling on soon. Military Families United has already started the push.

[CTyankee]

17. The words "bang, bang, bang, bang" should be the tipoff! Since when do terrorists

talk like that?

[Clio the Leo]

18. And Gibbs chewed them out.....

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs chastised CNN Friday morning for its reporting on a Coast Guard training exercise on ...

... the Potomac River, which suggested a security incident was in progress in the nation's capital.

"Before we report things like this, checking would be good," Gibbs said.

Responding directly to a CNN reporter's question about whether the public should have been notified about a training exercise, Gibbs was harshly sarcastic: "If anybody was unnecessarily alarmed based on erroneous reporting that denoted that shots had been fired, I think everybody is apologetic about that."

When another journalist noted that the Coast Guard was holding a news conference to take questions on the morning's events, Gibbs jabbed: "Hopefully CNN will go."

The president's spokesman also said the White House had not been notified in advance about any Coast Guard training exercise, but dismissed comparisons to the notoriously botched Air Force One flyover of Lower Manhattan earlier this year.

"I tend not to question law enforcement," Gibbs said, explaining the scheduling of the exercise was "a decision that was made by the Coast Guard."

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0909/gibbs_bashes_cnn_33aa28ad-a9c1-4873-84cb-60024cc0096d.html

I adore that man.