CNN Mistakenly Reports Hastert Avoided Prison Sentence

By Mark Joyella 

CNN appears to have jumped the gun in its reporting on the sentencing Wednesday of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, mistakenly reporting Hastert had avoided prison.

In a story posted to CNN.com at 12:23 p.m. ET, CNN reported that Hastert “was sentenced to two years of supervised release.” The same information was published via the @cnnbrk Twitter account:

While CNN’s TV reporting was focused on a foreign policy speech by Donald Trump, the incorrect report was repeated on air in the CNN ticker:

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As one commenter noted in a reply, “CNN…the judge is STILL ruling.” And that sentence ultimately included 15 months in prison. Even 45 minutes after the network’s tweet, it had not corrected its report to note the prison time.

CNN’s Jake Tapper deleted a tweet that linked to CNN’s story, saying “new info” was coming in:

UPDATE: 1:25 p.m. ET An hour after publishing its incorrect story, the web version has been updated. An editor’s note reads “CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave incomplete information about Hastert’s sentence.”

CNN’s tweet has not been deleted, and the @cnnbrk account has not corrected its report on the Hastert sentence.

UPDATE: 1:35 p.m. ET CNN has tweeted out a link to the corrected story. The network has also tweeted this clarification:

CNN was not the only organization to bungle its reporting:

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