Al Sharpton: CNN Report About 'Dark-Skinned' Boston Suspect 'Shameful'

AP

MSNBC's Al Sharpton decried CNN's erroneous report that the suspect arrested in the Boston Marathon bombings case was "dark-skinned," calling it "coded, offensive language" that was "shameful."

CNN was the first to incorrectly report Wednesday that an arrest had been made, and reporter John King, while noting that he wanted to be careful, announced on-air that the person was a "dark-skinned male."

"I want to be very careful about this because people get very sensitive when you say these things," King said. "I was told by one of these sources who is a law enforcement official, that this was a dark-skinned male...I'm not making a personal judgment, forgive me, but I think it's the right judgement, not to try to inflame tensions."

Sharpton on his MSNBC show Wednesday evening said the "reporting error" on the arrest was bad enough, but that he was "deeply troubled" by the "dark-skinned" descriptor. He cited the Washington Post's Erik Wemple, who called it "useless information that borders on inflammatory."

"These comments are very offensive, they have no place in our discourse, especially in a time when Americans are inspired by an example of the people in Boston coming together as one," Sharpton said. "What King's words did is to make every dark-skinned male in Boston a suspect, and that's shameful."

(h/t Huffington Post)