CNN’s John Avlon has never been my favorite news presenter at the network. But today he introduced a new segment called “Upon Further Review” which he said would be aimed at correcting stories the media got wrong initially. Avlon’s launch of the new segment was about the Duke volleyball story.

“Volleyball is rarely the source of serious controversy but it went straight to the front of the outrage Olympics two weeks ago when a Duke starter named Rachel Richardson made the explosive accusation that she and other black teammates were subjected to racist heckling while playing a game against Brigham Young University,” Avlon said. He then walked through how the story was initially reported, noting there were “some 65 separate articles” about the story and that the player’s family had appeared on CNN.

But to his credit, Avlon noted things changed when BYU’s investigation turned up zero evidence that this incident had happened. Avlon concludes there was a “rush to judgment” by the media.

“Healthy skepticism is always a virtue, but this doesn’t read like a coverup. Instead, it feels like there was a rush to judgment because of a well-intentioned impulse to believe the Duke player’s accusations,” he said.

Avlon added that the Richardson family has “notably” not returned requests for comment from CNN, despite previously appearing on the network.

Avlon did provide some cover for the allegations, saying the BYU statement does not accuse Richardson of being a “liar or a fabricator” and acknowledging that “systemic racism is real and corrosive to the soul of our nation.”

Facts, however, “always have to come first,” he added.

I hate to quibble when Avlon is doing so well, but even if it turns out tomorrow that everything Rachel Richardson said was true (maybe a new video clip turns up), that doesn’t prove that “systemic racism is real.” All it would prove is that in a crowd of more than 5,000 people there was one idiot yelling racial slurs.

If anything the swift and vocal reaction to even the claim that this happened shows something like the opposite of systemic racism. The system, in the form of the coaches and athletic administrators from both schools, immediately denounced this even without any evidence it was true. And that’s not to mention that Rachel Richardson had CNN, LeBron James and most of the media on her side.

To be clear, if it had been true then they would have been right to denounce it. The problem is that the hair trigger on this topic is so light that we’re really discouraged from even asking questions.

In this case, what John Avlon doesn’t say is that while CNN was diving into the controversy head first on the side of social justice, it was a small student paper and a local Utah paper that got to the truth even before BYU completed its investigation. Those outlets won’t need to run a segment like this one because they kept digging instead of running with a story that fit a progressive narrative.

I don’t know if there’s any truth to the idea which has been circulating that CNN is moving toward the center. Maybe this clip is proof it’s true. I guess it’s better than not admitting they got this wrong. Still, it would be even better if CNN would check the facts before it trumpets these stories. The impulse to believe allegations like this one may be well intentioned, but as we’ve seen many times in the past few years getting it wrong and trying to belatedly walk it back can do a lot of harm.

BYU reverses ban on fan after finding no evidence of slur against a Duke volleyball player. @JohnAvlon has today’s Upon Further Review: pic.twitter.com/YjfhOwtHTq

— New Day (@NewDay) September 12, 2022