Don't Blame CNN?
ShareI was on the "Situation Room" set when CNN showed Pres. Bush giving the opening lines of his speech. The fault was with NBC (the pool network) and not with CNN. The "Situation Room" had been showing the slate with the presidential seal all throughout the broadcast, along with a countdown to Bush's speech. In fact, Wolf Blitzer pointed that out to viewers earlier in the program. He noted: "I want to point out to our viewers, that president seal you see, that's the feed coming in from the White House. Once the president speaks in the Oval Office, a minute or so after 8:00 p.m. Eastern, that will become the picture we will see live from the Oval Office."
So when the feed switched to the president, CNN had already been showing it on one of the "Situation Room"'s many screens. But the net quickly realized there was a problem and cut back to Blitzer, who handled the event easily, explaining to viewers: "I think what happened ... is that the president is rehearsing. ... And the pool, network pool, inadvertently went to the president as he's rehearsing." [EMILY GOODIN]
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