CNN, the network that brands itself as the most trusted name in news, got absolutely bodied by a joke account on X this week. As The American Tribune reported, the network aired a quote from a completely fictional Republican congressman during a serious segment about Senator Mitch McConnell's health, then had to come back the next day and admit they got duped by a parody post.
During Wednesday's edition of "CNN This Morning," host Audie Cornish presented a graphic showing statements from Republicans who claimed to have recently spoken with the hospitalized McConnell. Three of the four quotes were from real people, including spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso, plus CNN commentator Scott Jennings. The fourth was from "Rep. Jack Kimble," a satirical X account that has been pretending to represent California's nonexistent 54th Congressional District for years. Years.
The parody post said Kimble spoke with "my old friend Mitch McConnell" for "just shy of 45 minutes." CNN apparently read that far and said, "Yep, looks legit, throw it on screen." What they failed to read was the rest of the post, which noted that McConnell "let me do all of the talking," that the two "prayed silently for awhile," and that McConnell beat him in a staring contest. You know, completely normal things that real congressmen report after welfare checks on hospitalized colleagues.
Cornish even referenced the 45 minute call on air while discussing Republicans saying they had spoken with McConnell. For context, the real Jennings quote said his call lasted just shy of 20 minutes. So the fake congressman apparently got more quality time with McConnell than actual people did. Nobody in the control room thought that was worth a second look.
The next morning, Cornish addressed the blunder. "One of them was mistakenly taken from a parody account on Twitter," she said. "Obviously, we should not have done that, and we regret the error." Short, sweet, and presumably delivered through gritted teeth.
The Jack Kimble account, as both the Daily Caller and NewsBusters noted, is not exactly a well kept secret. It has been fooling journalists since at least 2010, when it duped former Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart. The account's bio even references "Poe's Law," the internet principle about satire being mistaken for real commentary. It is practically wearing a name tag that says "Hello, I Am A Joke" and CNN still fell for it.
Naturally, Kimble milked the moment. The parody account shared a screenshot of the CNN graphic with the caption, "CNN's extreme leftwing bias exposed," because when life hands you a billion dollar news network treating you like a real congressman, you absolutely take a victory lap.
The whole mess unfolded against a backdrop of genuine concern about the 84 year old McConnell, who has been hospitalized since a medical emergency in June. Republican leaders have been publicly vouching for his condition, and CNN was trying to cover that story. Instead, they handed their critics a gift wrapped example of why maybe, just maybe, someone should Google the congressman before putting his quote on national television.
A five second search would have solved this. Five seconds. But here we are.
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