Both Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson at Fox News issued on-air updates after reporting allegations that CNN “scripted” its town hall on gun violence.
Last night, Glenn Haab, the father of Florida school shooting survivor Colton Haab, admitted he had edited copy of his e-mails with CNN’s producer; his edit removed words and seemingly backed Colton Haab’s claim that CNN had scripted the event. In fact, CNN’s producer had told the Haabs that what Colton Haab wanted to say on air was “way too long” and asked him to only ask one of his questions.
Tucker Carlson updated viewers on Feb. 27’s program, stating
“For the sake of honesty and full disclosure to which we are committed, we have to tell you there is no evidence as of right now that CNN tried to give Colton Haab a scripted question, and we wanted you to know that.”
Video of Carlson’s on-air update is below.
Hannity said on his program, according to the Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple:
“We have a quick update on a story we told you about last week. Colton Haab is a Stoneman Douglas High School student. He was supposed to appear on CNN’s gun-control town hall. He said the network tried to script his question. Both he and his father said they had emails to prove that, told the entire media. Tonight Glenn Haab told the AP that he omitted some words from the email; he says he didn’t do it on purpose. Therefore, what Haabs told all news outlets last week was inaccurate. Our job is always to strive for the truth, and we want to correct the record.”
Hannity’s broadcast comments are below:
Fox News added an editor’s note to the bottom of its Feb. 27 news story that reads:
“EDITOR’S NOTE: After student Colton Haab said a CNN producer insisted he use a question that the network scripted for him, the student’s father, Glenn, forwarded an email to media outlets including Fox News, claiming it served as proof. On Tuesday, Feb. 27, Glenn Haab acknowledged he omitted words in that email, but added, ‘There was nothing malicious behind it.'”
Despite the editor’s note at the bottom, the headline of the story reads, “Florida shooting survivor: CNN gave me ‘scripted’ question for town hall, quashed question on armed guards.”
A Feb. 23 article rounding up the day’s news reports on the allegations against CNN, but the editor’s note, at the bottom, is far away from the actual blurb concerning the allegations CNN scripted.
A Fox News spokesperson pointed iMediaEthics to videos of Hannity and Carlson’s on-air comments.
UPDATED: 3/1/2018 1:57 PM EST