CNN’s Poppy Harlow Said to Be ‘Outraged’ by Steubenville Coverage Criticism

In the aftermath of its slanted coverage of the Steubenville rape trial verdict Sunday, CNN has faced enormous criticism for focusing on the convicted rapists rather than the 16-year-old victim. The coverage was so bad that a petition on Change.org demanding that the cable news channel apologize for it has already garnered more than 200,000 signatures.

At the center of the firestorm is reporter Poppy Harlow, who said after the guilty verdict came down, “These two young men who had such promising futures — star football players, very good students — literally watched as they believed their life fell apart.”

Anonymous sources have reportedly told The Wrap that Harlow is now “outraged” by the reaction the coverage has received.

The Wrap:

CNN had no official comment, except to note privately that viral petitions sometimes have a life of their own and start “feeding on itself” whether or not the issue is valid.

Meanwhile two insiders at CNN exclusively told TheWrap that the controversy had hit reporter Poppy Harlow, covering the events in Steubenville, particularly hard.

“Poppy is taking this extremely personally as a woman,” said one executive. “She’s outraged that someone would think she’d do such a thing” as slant her coverage toward rapists. “It’s gotten so out of control.”

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More outrageous, of course, is the network’s coverage of the rape trial. However, it appears based on this report that CNN has so far learned nothing from Sunday’s events.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.