Update: Conflicting reports and scant evidence for a city-wide porn fluke suggest Boston’s RCN customers might not have experienced an X-rated broadcast problem as previously reported. Esquire writer Luke O’Neil traced the original claim back to just one Twitter user, who offered screenshots of her television as evidence. A CNN PR rep informed O’Neil and several media outlets, “Despite media reports to the contrary, RCN assures us that there was no interruption of CNN’s programming in the Boston area last night.†RCN Boston’s Jeff Carlson also told the Huffington Post, “We are in the process of researching this incident but see no evidence our CNN network feed was compromised last evening in Boston.†Even more confusingly, the Huffington Post also reports that CNN “initially confirmed the incident to HuffPost, but later backtracked.â€Â
Last night Boston CNN channel allegedly accidentally preempted Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown with 30 minutes of pornography. Anthony Bourdain fans were undoubtedly disappointed, but knowing them, not that disappointed. Variety reports that the mistake only affected customers of the cable provider RCN, who noticed the glitch at 11 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving. Viewers might have been dismayed, but not nearly as dismayed as whatever porn aficionado found themselves watching 30 minutes of Anthony Bourdain eating Manuel sem Jaleco and taking in the beautiful sights of Brazil. Or hey … maybe not.