CNN shouldn't drive the news

CNN's "we make the news" attitude crucified innocents last week. The station lambasted three medical students headed to internships at Miami, Fla.'s Larkin Community Hospital. Since, Larkin has received hundreds of condemning e-mails and threats, and has withdrawn its internship offer. \nThe case being made is that the students, all Arab-American, were overheard planning terrorist actions in a Georgia Shoney's. Eunice Stone, who was dining in the next booth, said she heard Kambiz Butt, 25, Ayman Gheith, 27, and Omer Choudhary, 23, say if Americans "were sad on 9/11, wait until 9/13." Stone also said the men were talking about bringing something down, which sounded to her like a reference to blowing something up. She also said some words were spoken in Arabic. \n Like any good patriot, Stone immediately called the police and told them what she heard, including a description of the students' vehicles.\nCNN broke the story as it happened. Gheith was accused of going through a toll stop without paying. Police pulled the students over, blocked off part of Hwy. I-70, or Alligator Alley, in Florida for 14-plus hours and searched the vehicles for explosives. FBI and local authorities detained the students for 17 hours, then released them when nothing was found. \nFor being suspected terrorists, the police couldn't find one firecracker of evidence on them.\nVideographers filmed the blocked highway. Commentators speculated on what could be in those cars and what the police were talking about. The anchors did mention that nothing had been proven yet, but only after scaring the public with unfounded speculations on why the students had said what they said. They took the words straight from Stone's mouth. \nBut there's something very funny about this line of reasoning. \n"The thing that hurts me the most was that the argument was about whether they said it was a hoax or if we meant it," Gheith told Larry King on Monday. "Nobody considered that we didn't say it."\nThat's exactly the problem. Instead of running with a speculative story line, CNN should have reported the facts when they existed. If the station didn't have the facts right away, the anchors should have talked about a different story for the time being instead of filling the dead air with fright-inspiring statements on the next terrorist attack. \nCome to find out -- Gheith did pay the toll, the three really are medical students, they are all Americans and two of them don't even speak Arabic. \nThe constitution accepts the "innocent until proven guilty" line. Why can't the media?\nIt can be said that the police overreacted, but they were just doing their job. They knew that if another terrorist attack ever did happen, six months later the entire nation would blame them for not pursuing enough leads. They had a reason to be extra-vigilant. And when they found nothing on the students, the law enforcement officials let them go. \nSadly, first impressions are everything. CNN broke the story without much to go on. Before the facts were found the students were labeled as "possible terrorists." No matter what you put in front of it, you know the only word that will be remembered is "terrorist." \nCNN has done a good job of balancing its coverage since the incident, inviting the students to speak on "Larry King Live" and playing up the fact that Stone could have been wrong. But that's not the issue. First impressions are what count. \nWhen dignity is stolen in a flurry of speculation and fear, earning it back is beyond their control. \nThe media should learn to be responsible with the stories it reports. These are people\'s' lives we talk about everyday. \nNo need to end them prematurely.\n-- Jessica Halverson for the Editorial Board