Remember this summer when CNN’s Brian Stelter called out headline writers for writing accurate headlines that simply quoted the president as problematic? His argument then was the headline writers shouldn’t just take whatever Trump says at face value and repeat it as if it were fact:

My Q for headline writers: "Why does the president still get the benefit of the doubt when he, on a daily basis, exaggerates and straight-up lies to the public, to the press and about the press?" pic.twitter.com/hBBK9O8tJc — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 23, 2019

With that said, we’d like Brian to give us a ruling on this tweet from his own network:

Adam Hergenreder's vaping habit almost killed him. Late last month, the 18-year-old student athlete was hospitalized after using e-cigarettes for more than a year and a half. Now his lungs are similar to those of a 70-year-old, doctors told him. https://t.co/ssxbNqhW23 — CNN (@CNN) September 12, 2019

We ask because buried in the CNN article is this nugget where we find out this young man was vaping an illegal product and not his JUUL e-cig and that’s when his health problems started:

I love how the beginning of the article blames JUUL but then after 15 paragraphs admits he started getting sick when he started mixing THC in the cape. #FakeNews @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/toaDLTtGxD — AceXprt (@AceXprt) September 12, 2019

This is important because it’s half-truth headlines like this from CNN that are causing the moral panic around all e-cigs. Here are the facts as we know them:

There is no definitive evidence vaping leads to smoking. FDA-regulated nicotine vaping is not linked to lung illness. The dangerous stuff are illicit, adulterated THC products. And banning regulated products only drives consumers into that black market. https://t.co/YP7e57cTff — Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) September 11, 2019

It’s “textbook”:

A marginalized group (current or ex-tobacco users). An ill-defined public health threat. A theory of moral deviancy involving kids. This is a textbook moral panic. Reason will prevail, but not before we give the gov’t new power to make everything worse. https://t.co/nyK3EKz3Cv pic.twitter.com/yZPVaRiGuX — Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) September 12, 2019

***