Credit CNN for stomping on their own Rick Sanchez, who reported that George Bush had … “cooties” at the G20 meeting. It turns out that Sanchez didn’t bother to actually check out the details of the reception, which Jeanne Moos did after Sanchez’ report went viral yesterday:

Bush didn’t get snubbed at all, it turns out. He had already greeted most of these leaders, including a number of photo ops that Moos includes in this report. The handshakes we see in Sanchez’ clip occurred with leaders who had not already met for a grip-and-grin before the group shot.

Hey, even Angela Merkel posed with Bush and smiled while he grabbed her hand … and only her hand. Silvio Berlusconi held Bush’s hand as they strolled off the dais. Everyone seemed cheery around Bush, even with the economy diving into a teacup this week.

So where does this leave Rick Sanchez? How does a show host recover from having his own network rip apart his reporting as puerile and uninformed? Move to MS-NBC, where those qualities have value?