Porn pre-empts CNN’s Anthony Bourdain? Media bite bigly

Purveyors of fake news upped their game Thursday night, getting serious media outlets to report that CNN aired a half-hour of hard-core porn.

Mediaite.com tells how it first heard of this via an International Business Times headline: “Oops! CNN’s Boston TV channel accidentally broadcasts 30 minutes of hardcore porn.”

“Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” was the reported time slot of the X-rated material.

The New York Daily News story used “allegedly” in its headline (as a fig leaf in case it was wrong).

Alas, it was another clickbait hoax.

“A random girl in Boston faked a few Tweets and caused a media uproar,” Mediaite suggested.

But “news spread like digital wildfire; before we knew it, Variety had published, ‘Cable Operator Snafu in Boston Leads to Porn Airing on CNN Channel,’ while The Independent ran with, ‘CNN accidentally airs 30 minutes of non-stop hardcore porn.’ Mashable went with, ’30 minutes of hardcore porn just aired on CNN, apparently.’”

What did CNN have to say?

“The [senior vice president] and General Manager of RCN Boston said in a statement, ‘We are in the process of researching this incident but see no evidence our CNN network feed was compromised last evening in Boston.'”

But it was fun while it lasted:

for the love of god, stop reporting stories based off a single tweet https://t.co/o4uLOambCz

— eve peyser (@evepeyser) November 25, 2016

CNN accidentally airs 30 minutes of trans porn… https://t.co/PWvbSRk6ZB

— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) November 25, 2016

CNN accidentally airs 30 minutes of non-stop hardcore trans porn instead of Anthony Bourdain’s ‘Parts Unknown’ https://t.co/By4EvRDrBS

— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) November 25, 2016

Boston CNN airs porn instead of Anthony Bourdain, shocking viewers who’d forgotten people watch porn on their TVs https://t.co/0IzZ9Xk50p

— Vulture (@vulture) November 25, 2016

For Thanksgiving CNN aired some hardcore porn for 30 minutes: https://t.co/EGihzrrUls pic.twitter.com/RPO02sd42C

— VICE (@VICE) November 25, 2016

30 minutes of hardcore porn just aired on CNN, apparently https://t.co/dSYPuoncWA pic.twitter.com/kj0UlRvyti

— Mashable (@mashable) November 25, 2016

Ironically showing 30 minutes of hardcore porn was probably the least offensive thing @CNN has done all year.

— Brazzers (@Brazzers) November 25, 2016