CNN Blows Health Care Ruling (OK, Fox did too)

[Jess 1110]

As you all probably know, this morning, the Supreme Court issued its opinion on the Health Care thing (or, *sigh*, "Obamacare" if you HAVE to call it that). Every network covered it, it's been understandably the big story all day.

 

And CNN blew it. Big time.

 

Okay, I'll note here that Fox News blew the initial reporting too. However, not long after they got the initial reports, they reported on the roundups coming from other networks and online, and quickly retracted. The mistake was corrected within three to four minutes. And the erroneous report was only aired on the TV side.

 

CNN did not acknowledge the confusion for five minutes. They started reporting that it might be wrong after seven minutes, in a report where she basically said "this is thiiiiiick, and I can't understaaaaaand it". It took them almost nine minutes to get it right. By which time all of the other broadcast networks and internet sites were reporting the law was completely upheld.

 

Worse, CNN broadcast this not only on the internet, but its website, its Twitter account, its mobile apps, etc. So even if they weren't watching, MILLIONS of people got the wrong report.

 

This is bad because CNN is in a bad state at the moment. Its ratings are at historic lows. Its websites and mobile apps are very badly designed. And, most damningly, their flagship network is, frankly, unwatchable. All they have left is their reputation at breaking news times. And they just destroyed that by doing a modern "Dewey Defeats Truman".

 

CNN management needed to go five months ago. I hope, hope, hope that this finally spurs Jeff Bewkes at Time Warner to call them all into his office and fire them on the spot. That's the only thing they can do to save CNN.

[Geoffrey 779]

I was watching it live. CNN went from saying that the Supreme Court found the individual mandate was not valid under the Commerce Clause, which was correct, to connecting the dots and saying that the Court had struck down the individual mandate.

 

One thing I learned in Constitutional Law class is that you can't just skim a Supreme Court opinion quickly and expect to get it right.

 

Huge embarrassment. Apparently the president saw the banners on CNN and Fox News reporting that the court found the individual mandate to be unconstitutional and thought he had lost.

 

Hey, at least they were first.