"It was incredibly emotional, it was difficult for anyone in there to watch those boys break down,"

"Also difficult, of course, for the victim's family."

American news network CNN has attracted widespread criticism for a report broadcast on Sunday last, as two Ohio teens were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl who attended their school. 

Presenters for the channel lamented about the "promising" lives of the convicted rapists, who were high school "star football players".

For the majority of the report, the focus was on the young men, Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, with speculation on how the verdict would affect the future of the convicted rapists and their families. 

The video has attracted almost 700,000 views since it was posted on YouTube on Sunday and over 7,000 comments, the majority of which are critical of the network. 

Reporter Poppy Harlow said; "It was incredibly emotional, it was difficult for anyone in there to watch those boys break down." She then added; "Also difficult, of course, for the victim's family."

Earlier on Sunday another reporter for CNN, Candy Crowley, described the verdict as "incredibly difficult" to watch, saying: "These two young men -- who had such promising futures, star football players, very good students -- literally watched as they believed their life fell apart."

A petition has now been created on Change.org, calling on CNN to apologise for its coverage of the case. 

Gabriel Garcia, who created the petition, said on the site: 

That CNN decided to paint the tears of the convicted Steubenville rapists in a sympathetic light and say how their lives were ruined — while completely ignoring the fact that the rape victim's life is the one whose life was ruined by these rapists' actions — is disgusting and helps perpetuate a shameful culture in which young people never understand the concept of consent and in which rape victims are blamed and ostracized. Changing that culture must be done brick by brick, and it can start by heaping public shame on this major cable news network and forcing them to admit that they are wrong. Publicly.