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  • 2018-02-22 (xsd:date)
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  • Did CNN Give a Parkland Shooting Survivor Scripted Questions? (en)
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  • On 21 February 2018, a week after a gunman killed seventeen people during a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, a survivor of the attack accused CNN of trying to dictate what he should say during a town hall the event hosted to address gun safety arguments in the wake of the massacre. Following the broadcast on 21 February 2018, Colton Haab, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told local news station WPLG-TV: Haab, a member of the school's junior ROTC program who protected some of his fellow students during the assault by using Kevlar marksmanship sheets, was shown on camera with questions he said he had written prior to the event. He said: According to WPLG, Haab wanted to suggest that military veterans be employed as school security guards. But because CNN wanted him to ask scripted questions, he said, he opted not to appear. In a separate appearance on Fox News on 17 February 2018, Haab said that teachers who are willing to carry their firearm on campus and had received appropriate training would also make schools safer. President Donald Trump also called for more schoolteachers to be armed during a televised meeting with survivors of the Parkland attack, when a gunman killed seventeen people. The network responded to Haab's allegations on 22 February 2018 in a statement posted on its communication team's Twitter account: Haab reiterated his account in another Fox News interview on 22 February 2018. He said that a CNN producer first asked him to write a speech for the event, then asked him to submit questions. However, he said, the producer later asked him to ask one question (which appears around the two-minute mark): CNN responded again on Twitter, saying: While a number of Douglas High students have advocated for tighter gun safety laws in the wake of the shooting — and been accused of being crisis actors since doing so — Haab is, to date, the only student to accuse CNN of trying to script their statements at the town hall event. On the afternoon of 23 February 2018, CNN released its e-mail exchange between the network, Colton Haab, and his father, Glenn Haab, along with the following statement: In the exchange, Glenn Haab had presented the network with several pages of background points that he wished his son to recite before asking a question of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida): In response, the producer wrote: According to CNN, the elder Haab declined the invitation after the network rejected the full speech. He later reportedly admitted to inadvertently omitting some words from the email. (en)
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