CNN's Don Lemon admitted that his network "cannot independently verify the authenticity of" an audio recording purported to be the sound of Officer Darren Wilson shooting Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, but that didn't stop him from playing the audio and then engaging in wild speculation about what, if anything, the sound of the gunshots might mean.

The audio, which is dominated by the voice of the unidentified man who recorded it talking about unrelated issues, features the sound of several apparent gunshots, then a momentary pause, and then more apparent gunshots. Lemon asked his panel of "experts" to speculate about the completely unverified audio.

The august panel of "objective experts" included Lopa Blumenthal, attorney for the anonymous man who produced the recording, Ret US Marshall Matt Fogg who has made a name for himself claiming America's drug policies are really just a way to keep black people down, and attorney Chris Chestnut who was a major organizer in Florida for the Obama campaign and has been called "America's great voice for legal justice."

After listening to the unverified and anonymously sourced audio, CNN's panel all agreed that the "pause" between the two groups of shots was troubling. The rampant and irresponsible speculation continued unabated with Fogg claiming the pause meant Officer Wilson had a moment to consider what he was doing (apparently it's not possible Wilson was waiting to see if Brown stopped advancing and then continued firing when he did not).

Chestnut went one step further in the irresponsible speculation game. The attorney, listening via satellite, heard the unverified and anonymously sourced audio and began to conclude that the sounds he heard meant that Officer Wilson was advancing and couldn't have been involved in a struggle with Brown.

This is what amounts to news and analysis on CNN today. Play unverified audio that could very well be a fraud, have a panel of activists with the same perspectives and agendas, then have them speculate on what the unverified audio might mean (all that speculation happens to feed the narrative that is justifying CNN's 24/7 coverage of the story in the first place.)

Given the larger damage the race-baiting narrative does to the fabric of our nation, the wild speculation on display during the Malaysian Airliner disappearance seems almost quaint now.