CNN Forced To Make Smear Reporting Correction

CNN was forced to issue a correction to its reporting this week aimed at discrediting a portion of Republican Alabama Sen. Katie Britt's State of the Union rebuttal in which she included the tragic story about an unnamed sex trafficking victim to emphasize the effects of the ongoing border crisis.

That victim of sex trafficking was later identified as Karla Jacinto, who faced immense brutality from the ages of 12 to 16 at the hands of traffickers in Mexico, which Britt detailed in her rebuttal. 

Fox News Digital reports CNN paraded Jacinto in front of its audience over the weekend with an appearance on the network and in a subsequent story in which it made a number of claims attempting to derail Britt's portrayal of the story. However, those claims ran in stark contrast to past reporting on Jacinto, as well as her own words.

In its piece following the weekend interview with Jacinto, CNN wrote that Britt inaccurately said she met one-on-one with Jacinto. However, Britt never claimed in her rebuttal to have had a one-on-one meeting, only stating that she "spoke" with Jacinto while traveling to the border in Texas.

When reached for comment on the inaccuracy, CNN responded that it had corrected the piece to reflect it was Jacinto's view that Britt claimed the two met one-on-one, and not the outlet's. "CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify the circumstances of Britt’s meeting with Jacinto," a note at the bottom of the story now reads.

CNN also portrayed Britt as incorrectly claiming Jacinto was trafficked by Mexican drug cartels, but the senator never said "drug cartels" during her rebuttal. She specifically talked about "cartels," referring to organized crime along the border, similar to how Jacinto previously described her traffickers as a "crime organization" during testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in May 2015.