CNN found itself issuing an on-air correction Thursday after one of its programs mistakenly treated a parody social media account as a legitimate political source during coverage of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health.
The error occurred during Wednesday’s edition of CNN This Morning, when the program displayed a series of reactions to McConnell’s hospitalization. Alongside comments from actual Republican figures and conservative commentator Scott Jennings, the show aired a post from the X account “Jack Kimble,” a well-known parody account.
The post read, “I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 45 minutes.”
The problem was that Jack Kimble is not a real member of Congress.
The account’s profile identifies its owner as a Republican representing California’s 54th Congressional District—a congressional district that does not exist. The account is intended as satire, something its profile has long made clear.
About 24 hours after the segment aired, CNN acknowledged the mistake.
“Yesterday on the show, we displayed quotes from some Republicans about Senator Mitch McConnell’s stay in the hospital,” CNN This Morning host Audie Cornish said Thursday. “One of them was mistakenly taken from a parody account on Twitter.”
She continued, “Obviously, we should not have done that, and we regret the error.”
Following CNN’s correction, the Jack Kimble account responded on X with its own commentary.
“CNN’s Extreme leftwing bias exposed,” the account wrote.
The incident quickly attracted attention online, with critics questioning how a national news network allowed a satirical account to make it through its editorial process and appear alongside authentic statements from public figures.
