A PROBLEM AMONG FRIENDS - AT 5:58 P.M. ET:  While not as deep in the tank as MSNBC, which now functions as a branch of the White House, CNN has been an Obama-friendly zone.  So we are mildly gratified that the White House actually criticized CNN today over its wild reporting of a non-incident:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today criticized CNN — not the Coast Guard — over the panic caused by the agency’s training exercise on the Sept. 11 anniversary, saying that the alarm could have been avoided if the network had checked its facts.

Gibbs said he wouldn’t second-guess Coast Guard leadership for holding a Potomac River exercise on the morning of the 9/11 commemoration. But he took a shot at CNN, which initially didn’t know the maneuvers in the Potomac were an exercise and erroneously reported that gunshots were fired — something the homeland security department said didn’t occur.

“Let’s understand that best I can tell there was reporting based on listening to a police scanner that was not verified, and then it was on television and now we’ve raced back to find out that it’s a training exercise. So I think it appears as if a lot of this might have been avoided,” Gibbs said.

COMMENT:  I monitored that coverage.  It would have gotten an F in any journalism school - unless the multicultural aspects of the non-event were mentioned, in which case an A would have been given.

They used a scanner and didn't check?  This is not good.  It makes us wonder about the rest of CNN's "reporting," but we've been wondering for years anyway.

I'm sure that CNN will now upgrade its practices and start listening to guys with cigarette holders standing under lampposts in Georgetown.  Hey, you never know.  They see stuff.

September 11, 2009