Parkland father admits he doctored CNN email supporting son's shaky 'scripted' town hall claim

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School junior Colton Haab got everyone's attention last week when he claimed that he had withdrawn from participating in a CNN town hall about the shooting attack at his Parkland, Florida, high school because "CNN had originally asked me to write a speech and questions, and it ended up being all scripted." CNN refuted the claim, but his father, Glenn Haab, produced an email that appeared to back up his son's claim. On Tuesday, Glenn Haab admitted he omitted some key words from the email exchange, but he told The Associated Press "there was nothing malicious behind it."

In the version of CNN producer Carrie Stevenson's email that Glenn Haab forwarded to Fox News and HuffPost, Stevenson told him that his son "needs to stick to" what "Colton and I discussed on the phone." He cut her words "that he submitted," which showed that instead of feeding Colton "scripted" questions, Stevenson was asking him to stick with the questions he had sent in earlier, and rejecting the "way too long" four-page document, with a 700-word statement and several questions, that his father had emailed to her.

Glenn Haab is a Republican gun owner, AP notes, and one of the questions Colton Haab wanted to ask was about arming teachers. Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, as well as other conservatives, had pointed to Colton Haab's claim to suggest the CNN town hall was "scripted," biased against guns, or worse. President Trump cited Carlson's report to declare the town hall "fake news."

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