Are we sure CNN reported first? I thought the wires had it first.
Looks to me like somebody with a scanner but the errant crap out there. FOX did not run with it until later when CNN would not drop the story. I'm sure all the news services who usually make these sorts of mistakes, all made them at the same time.
There was nothing short of scrambling all their radio channels that Coast Guard could do to Idiot proof their training regimen.