After its botched gun control town hall, CNN executives are lashing out at a hero of the Parkland school shooting for exposing their scripted questions.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Colton Haab said he was approached by CNN to ask a question at Wednesday night's town hall but decided not to after the network gave him a "scripted question," quashing one he wrote himself. Haab, a member of the Junior ROTC shielded students while the school was under attack from the shooter, said he was going to ask about using veterans as armed security guards.
"CNN had originally asked me to write a speech and questions and it ended up being all scripted," Haab told WPLG-TV.
CNN aired a town hall on the Florida school shooting with Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) that included NRA's Dana Loesch and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel that was moderated by Jake Tapper. Students and parents asked questions about gun control and school safety.
Town halls on network and cable news are usually scripted despite the pretense that they're not. And this one was front loaded with a political agenda.
"Colton wrote questions about school safety, suggested using veterans as armed school security guards but claims CNN wanted him to ask a scripted question instead so he decided not to go," Stanwood reported.
Had Colton written a question accusing Senator Rubio of having blood on his hands for supporting the Bill of Rights, it would be a very different story. And we all know that.
It also exposes the fact that the "unchallenged moral authority" that the media bestows on survivors of the Parkland shooting only extends to those who agree with them.
CNN execs are obviously not happy with having that agenda exposed. And they're implicitly accusing Colton of being a liar. First there was the snippy statement, "CNN did not, and does not, script any questions for town hall meetings, ever."
Of course it does. And everyone knows it. CNN's town halls are just as unscripted as reality TV.
Then CNN blamed Colton's father for the whole thing. And invited him on.
It's a sad and pathetic tantrum by a flailing fake news network infuriated at having its fake town hall exposed.