It was common knowledge that following the presidential election, one which a painfully biased, unprofessionally partial CNN called wrong every step of the way, the pro-Clinton network would be desperate to preserve its viewership and eyeballs using every means possible. What happened next was a surprise even to us.
On Thursday night, around the time families across the US were celebrating Thanksgiving dinner, CNN accidentally aired half an hour of hardcore pornography after "a grave error by RCN" a local cable TV provider based in New Jersey that provides CNN's broadcasting all down the east coast.
According to the Independent, as viewers were tuning in for a brand new episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, "the show's title took on a brand new meaning when the scheduled programming was replaced with explicit material starring adult transsexual film star Riley Quinn."
Riley Quinn was kind enough to promptly thank CNN for the "free airtime"
Hey @CNN thanks for the free airtime.
— Riley Quinn (@TSRileyQuinn) November 25, 2016
The only thing that spared CNN from even greater embarrassment is that the "error" was confined, and according to the Independent's report, only viewers in the Boston are experienced the "mistake" on Thursday night as one viewer voiced her concerns on Twitter. “I can't wait until [RCN] wakes up [tomorrow] & realizes that hardcore porn was broadcast on [CNN] instead of [Parts Unknown] tonight,” user @Solikearose wrote. An hour later, the CNN channel was taken off-air.
“Did anyone else with RCN in Boston see the hardcore porn that was broadcast by CNN by mistake?” the user asked on Twitter before making her account private. “Vague update from RCN on the #BourdainPorn incident: everything “working perfectly,” can’t tell how many households affected.”
It's not immediately clear if the incident was a simple mistake—though it's hard to imagine how getting porn on air would be simple—or if it was the work of a rogue individual. It is also unclear how the unscheduled programming was allowed to stay on the air for 30 minutes.
It remains to be seen if in response to its collapsing ratings, CNN will refocus from waging war on "fake media", and make airing of hard core porn during primetime TV a part of scheduled programming. Come, pardon the pun, to think of it, "Deep Quote with Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper" is a "news" show we could certainly sink our teeth into.