It has been reported on various Web sites that CNN re-edited John Cena’s comments on Sunday’s replay of Death Grip: Inside Pro Wrestling in response to a flood of complaints. I didn’t see the re-edited program, but CNN reportedly added in Cena’s initial reply of “absolutely not” to his response to a reporter’s question of whether he had ever used steroids.

In the original program, CNN aired an ambiguous statement from Cena that was seemingly a veiled admission to having used steroids. When wwe.com subsequently posted Cena’s complete and unedited response to the question, it was obvious that Cena’s quote was taken out of context.

By re-editing Cena’s response in the replay to more accurately represent his point, CNN obviously feels it made a mistake the first time. That’s nice that they corrected it, but it’s not enough. They don’t just get a do-over. CNN needs to publicly acknowledge its error and apologize to Cena as well as the viewers.

The network doesn’t need to admit to having an agenda, because no one can say with absolute certainty whether the omission of a key part of Cena’s answer was intentional. CNN just needs to apologize for presenting Cena’s answer in a manner that was misleading and below the network’s standards of fair and objective reporting.

NOTE: I am scheduled to conduct a telephone interview with Shawn Michaels today, and I will post the Q&A with him tomorrow.