CNN was scrambling yesterday to head off a backlash by viewers disgusted by its coverage of two teenagers convicted Sunday of raping a young Steubenville, Ohio, girl.
The Internet erupted with protests yesterday after a CNN reporter said it was “incredibly emotional, incredibly difficult” to watch the students get convicted.
“Two young men [who] had such promising futures, star football players, very good student . . . literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart,” correspondent Poppy Harlow told viewers.
Anchor Candy Crowley added, “Regardless of what big football players they are, they still sound like 16-year-olds,” she said.
By yesterday, three different online petitions on Change.org were demanding CNN apologize for its “disgusting” coverage. More than 30,000 signatures were collected in the first 24 hours.
“The criminals were almost becoming the victims,” said John Szarowski of Corinna, Maine, who started one of the petitions on Change.org.
“Now their lives were destroyed. There was no mention at all of their victim, and the life they destroyed.”
CNN yesterday refused to comment on the controversy.
The case involved two high school football players who had sex with a female student who’d passed out at a drinking party.
The initial handling of the case in the football-mad town raised questions about whether the two young men, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, had gotten special consideration.