Lewis Brown

In his interview with CNN Thursday promoting CainTV, former GOP candidate Herman Cain said that one of the stars of his new Internet TV network, a homeless man named Lou, had passed away. Specifically, Cain said that Lou “passed away suddenly last week,” after a producer went to see him to record more segments.

There is just one problem (as first noted by Mediaite’s Frances Martel): Lou died last September, and even received an obituary in the New York Times. Lou is Lewis Brown, a former basketball prodigy, who lived the later part of his life on the streets.

Friday, CNN set the record straight.

“Well, that’s not exactly right,” said anchor Kyra Phillips, after playing the clip of Cain talking about Brown’s death. Phillips said that a man whose father played with Brown reached out to CNN to set the record straight.

“Lewis’ life touched me very deeply, and I wanted you to hear about it in the proper light, Phillips said.

What followed was a full obituary on Brown’s life, much of it aggregated from the New York Times article. There was also a statement from Cain’s spokesperson, who said “in retrospect we regret that we did not keep in touch with Brown on a more regular basis.”