The Triad system should have kicked into gear, with reviews by lawyers, a standards-and-practices division, and an editorial team known collectively as the Row, which checks facts and approves anonymous sources. (The system is so ingrained that CNN journalists often use the term as a verb: as in, has the story been “rowed”?)

But several network officials were caught off-guard when the story appeared online, the people said, signaling that it had not received the proper approvals.

CNN has not specified what, if anything, in the story was untrue, only saying that the piece did not meet its editorial standards. On Tuesday, the network declined to explain the exact nature of how its procedures went awry.