A brief history of media mistakes

Several major news outlets blew it on Wednesday, falsely reporting that a suspect had been arrested in the Boston bombing. Here are more famous flubs.

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This time, the network claimed that a suspect had been arrested in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing. After the FBI issued a stern rebuke, the occasional news network backed away from the story. (Others got the story wrong as well, but CNN’s mistakes were made with particular panache.)

BuzzFeed did a wonderful job of capturing CNN’s awful hour of reporting here.

The New York Post, meanwhile, is getting slammed on Thursday for running a picture on its cover of two young men it referred to as “bag men,” who were being sought in connection with the Boston bombing. They were “completely innocent,” according to The Huffington Post.

Below are a few other high-profile examples of mainstream media outlets getting a major story wrong.

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