Last week, we posted a story alleging that a KVII News Channel 7 Amarillo reporter, LaMyiah Harvel, may have deceptively edited an interview with a Texas lung illness patient. In a video posted to YouTube after the news interview aired, the lung patient, Benjamin Caramillo, claimed that he had told Ms. Harvel that he had only vaped THC products, and that he had never vaped flavored nicotine products.
Now, KVII has posted new footage from the interview, during which Mr. Caramillo appears to admit to using “flavors.” Admittedly, Mr. Caramillo may have been speaking about different “flavors” of THC vaping products, and we feel it would have been appropriate to ask a follow-up question to confirm exactly what kind of vaping he was admitting to. Nonetheless, we understand that confusion could result from his answer.
We would like to thank KVII and Ms. Harvel for posting the video and clearing up some of the confusion. We believe that advocacy organizations should be held to the same standard as news media, namely accuracy in reporting. As such, due to the uncertainty surrounding Mr. Caramillo’s allegations, we have taken down the original post laying out the allegations against KVII and Ms. Harvel. We look forward to seeing Ms. Harvel’s work on this subject in the future.
Ultimately, the fact remains that Mr. Caramillo, like 87% of patients in Texas as of last week, admitted to using THC vaping oils. We continue to encourage consumers to avoid vaping illicit THC products.
