For a network that still bills itself as the “most trusted name in news,” CNN just face-planted on social media — again. This time, it took a flashy Super Bowl halftime rumor and turned it into a national embarrassment, courtesy of a too-eager anchor and a viral hoax that unraveled under the weight of basic facts.

The episode had all the familiar ingredients: a sensational claim, a left-wing social media agitator, and a corporate media figure who hit “repost” before bothering to ask whether the story was true.

Enter Ed Krassenstein, a serial misinformation peddler who breathlessly declared it “Amazing!” that the young boy briefly featured during the Super Bowl halftime show — when rapper Bad Bunny handed off his Grammy Award — was supposedly the same child caught up in a recent Department of Homeland Security operation in Minnesota.

“Many of you may have missed this, but the little boy who Bad Bunny handed his Grammy to at the Super Bowl was Liam Ramos! Amazing!” Krassenstein wrote, attaching a side-by-side image meant to seal the deal.

The post quickly caught fire among the usual suspects — including CNN anchor Jim Sciutto, who amplified the claim without conducting even a cursory fact check.

That’s when reality intervened. Western Lensman, an X user known for documenting media missteps, put the blunder on full display by posting a screenshot of Sciutto’s repost next to the Community Note that swiftly dismantled the narrative.

“A CNN anchor retweeting blatant Krassenstein misinformation is just too perfect. Stellar stuff.”

The Community Note clarified what anyone with minimal journalistic standards should have checked first: the child in the halftime show was not Liam Ramos at all, but child actor Lincoln Fox.

Krassenstein, instead of deleting the false claim, attempted damage control — first citing “conflicting reports,” then eventually conceding the actor’s true identity. Sciutto quietly deleted his repost once the hoax collapsed.

But the misinformation had already served its purpose. The false storyline fit neatly into the media narrative painting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as villains. Left-wing activists and sympathetic outlets had previously pushed claims that the Minnesota child was “detained” while DHS agents attempted to arrest his father, Ecuadorian national Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias.

What those reports downplayed — or ignored — was that the father fled the scene, leaving his son behind. The White House pushed back forcefully.

“It’s shameful that the media so quickly runs with the fake Democrat narrative without first getting the facts,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson told Fox News. “Here’s the reality: ICE officers work heroically with the utmost professionalism to make American communities safer. In this instance, they stayed with a child who was abandoned by his father — an illegal alien from Ecuador.”

Criticism online was swift and unforgiving. While Krassenstein was dragged for spreading yet another bogus claim, much of the backlash zeroed in on Sciutto and CNN — a network many Americans already view as more interested in clicks and narratives than accuracy.