Embarrassed Much? CNN Pranked Epically

Anyone who watches CNN has heard the tagline, “This is CNN.”  After a prank carried out by Howard Stern’s producer Gary Dell’Abate last Saturday, one has to wonder if the cable news outfit ever bothers to vet their stories before they air them.

“Captain Janks”, according to Stern, was booked as a guest around 12:30 in the afternoon and got on the air at 5:30 at night.  In the interim, CNN failed to check their sources.

Janks, pretending to be Gregory Porter, one of the Cairo University exchange students freed by the Egyptian government after being arrested in Tahrir Square, was being “interviewed” by newsreader Fredricka Whitfield.  About a minute-and-a-half into the segment, Janks told Whitfield that being home was “like an early Christmas present.”  Then he thanked his mom, his attorney, the American embassy, the North Shore Animal League and Baba Booey’s monkey nuts.

For a moment Whitfield looked flummoxed and then told viewers, “We’re going to try to reconnect with the real Gregory Porter as best we can.”

Comedy gold, I tell ya.  Comedy gold.