On Wednesday, CNN organized a town hall event in Parkland, Florida, which was billed as a debate over gun control in light of the recent school atrocity. Clearly, the event was designed by CNN to continue pressing their anti-gun crusade using student survivors as their phalanx. The event was billed as an opportunity for Parkland students and their parents to express their thoughts while calling their representatives to action. Needless to say, the event was more spectacle than debate, like watching a totalitarian tribunal demand individuals answer for their thought crimes. Orwellian might be the best description.

Of the students and parents who questioned Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in particular, the perspective was predictably one side. The problem was guns, full stop. No, hedging allowed. In fact, if Rubio did not fully concede that the legality of “assault” weapons were the primary factor in the atrocity, then he was fully wrong. Unfortunately, under that unyielding barrage, Rubio conceded too much, even as he bravely faced CNN’s carefully scripted attack.

It was later alleged that CNN sought to prevent questions that did not follow their desired script. Colton Haab, a student and junior ROTC member at Stoneman Douglas High School, who heroically help shield fellow students from the school shooter, insists that CNN scripted and changed his questions. Haab said, “CNN asked me to write a speech and questions, and it ended up being all scripted.” Feeling like he wouldn’t be allowed to ask questions from his own point of view, Haab decided to not go to the town hall event, stating, “It’s not going to add to the true questions that all the students, and teachers, and parents have.”

CNN denies this, saying Haab was only asked to ask a question, not write a speech, due to time constraints. So is this a miscommunication, or is it another episode of CNN staging the news?

Here is Haab explaining what happened:

Update 2/28: It seems that Haab’s father is guilty of a bit of misleading deception, and the revelation largely undermines the story here. CNN’s guilty of a lot of things, and propaganda in the midst of tragedy is one of them. But it does not appear the network is guilty of scripting this question.