CNN’s Sanchez, ABC’s Trapper and CBS to FOX News: You Lie
Anyone who has worked in the media knows about a “fatal” in a story: it’s an error so big that if it isn’t corrected fast and prominently, it can discredit the info-outlet that carries it. This is the kind of error newspapers correct on the front page (versus some of the bigger ones buried inside). Fox News — the network that says it provides fair and accurate reporting — is now being blasted by CNN’s Rick Sanchez, ABC’s Jake Trapper and CBS News for an ad that they say contains a huge …fatal.
Watch Sanchez’s report below. As Sanchez has done in the past, he replies to an allegation by showing a batch of clips that makes the case that the assertion is…a fatal. One of the quotes he shows is even from that famous liberal and noted CNN booster Bill O’Reilly — Fox News’ cash cow and one of its hottest properties. O’Reilly is also highly competitive and often critical of MSNBC and CNN. Watch this in full:
And Trapper? The Politico:
Jake Tapper, on Twitter this morning, took issue with a Fox News ad in today’s Washington Post, that he says is “asserting that every other channel ‘missed’ the story of the 912 march. Demonstrably untrue.”
He pointed out that Yunji de Nies, his ABC colleague at the White House, covered last weekend’s protest.
But even that wasn’t enough for some, and after a back and forth on Twitter, Tapper wrote that it was his “last tweet defending a fact.”
“To the non-reality based community, have a great day and nice weekend,” he wrote.
UPDATE: The ad — now added above — isn’t just false when it comes to ABC, but other networks, too. It should be noted that CNN sent more than a dozen personnel to the event, including deputy political director Paul Steinhauser, Jim Spellman, and Lisa Desjardins (whose appearance in front of shouting protesters made the rounds on YouTube since Saturday). NBC and CBS were also on hand to cover the event.
So Tapper was right to call the Fox ad “demonstrably untrue” — which it is if you’re talking about physically being there. Nevertheless, Michael Tammero, Fox’s VP of Marketing explains to TVNewser: “Generally speaking, it’s fair to say that from the tea party movement … to Acorn … to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether.”
And the Politico has a statement from CBS that also says Fox News committed….a…fatal since CBS “had multiple crews on site with our Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes reporting. It was the lead story on the CBS EVENING NEWS; CBS Radio News provided hourly reports and CBSNews.com had the story in its rotating lead all day. They also processed the Nancy Cordes video and linked it throughout the site.”
Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, one of the papers that ran the ad, has an extensive story about this controversy. He writes:
The ad appeared Friday in the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, both owned by Fox’s parent company, and in The Washington Post.
ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider described the ad as “outrageous and false.” NBC spokeswoman Lauren Kapp said that “the facts . . . prove it wrong.” CNN spokeswoman Edie Emery called the ad “blatantly false.”
Fox News provided more coverage than other news outlets in the run-up to what Beck branded the “9/12″ protests, but the other networks hardly ignored the story. ABC, for instance, covered it Saturday and Sunday on “Good Morning America” and Sunday on “World News,” along with extensive reports by ABC Radio and the network’s Web site. NBC covered it Saturday on “Nightly News” and the next morning on “Today.” CBS covered it on the “Evening News.” CNN covered the Saturday protests during the 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. hours, as well as on other programs afterward. Correspondents such as NBC’s Tom Costello, ABC’s Kate Snow and CBS’s Nancy Cordes were involved in the coverage.
Fox’s view is that the ad refers to the other networks’ missing the larger story, not failing to cover the demonstration itself — although the photos suggest that the headline refers to the protest. “Generally speaking,” Michael Tammero, Fox News’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement, “it’s fair to say that from the tea party movement . . . to ACORN . . . to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether.”
There is no evidence that The Post asked Fox for any substantiation. Ken Babby, Washington Post Media’s vice president for advertising, declined to be interviewed.
Read it in full. The fact that the Post is covering it and the sentence:”There is no evidence that The Post asked Fox for any substantiation. Ken Babby, Washington Post Media’s vice president for advertising, declined to be interviewed” suggests that this did not turn out to be just another ad. Kurtz also quotes the Post’s spokeswoman as defending the ad, saying it was Fox News’ opinion of how it covered the story compared to its competitors.
But ABC doesn’t see it as that simple:
ABC’s Schneider, however, told the newspaper in a letter that The Post exercised “zero due diligence” in assessing the truth of the ad and that it “should have been rejected according to your professed standards. Now the Post should make it right by apologizing quickly and recognizing that it made a grave error that tarnishes the reputation of five other news organizations.”
Some thoughts:
UPDATE:
– From Variety’s Wilshire and Washington blog:
CNN anchor Rick Sanchez took on Fox News after the network ran an ad in the Washington Post today with a picture of last weekend’s 9/12 protests on Capitol Hill and the headline, “How did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN miss this story.”
In fact, the broadcast news networks and CNN did cover the event, but Sanchez is by far the most vocal, taking on a tone of indignation at the CNN competitor.
In a tone that had shades of Olbermann, “I am not going to sit here in silence and allow my craft and my news operation to be unfairly maligned, because enough is enough. And yes, I am talking about you Fox News, you who claim to be fair and balanced. At what, I wonder?”
….Few other recent events seem to have stirred such a challenge over basic facts, starting with the original contention that the event drew up to 2 million, quickly challenged and even corrected to a fraction of that.
Today, Fox News took out a full page ad in the Washington Post as well as the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal and New York Post asking, “How did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN Miss This Story?”
Well, those other networks were there.
And TV Newser packs its post with data about how — despite the fair and balanced network’s assertions, — the other networks were there and didn’t just pay lip service to story. Here’s just one of the sections:
NBC News had crews on the mall and correspondent Tom Costello reported live for NBC Nightly News Saturday. A Nightly News spokesperson tells TVNewser, “and more than 5.2 million viewers watched our coverage.” It was Weekend Nightly’s best Total Viewer delivery since April. MSNBC covered the gathering Saturday morning getting live shots from a reporter from NBC-owned WRC-TV.
ABC News was there too with reports for Good Morning America Saturday and Sunday. Kate Snow interviewed GOP Sen. Jim DeMint who was a speaker at the rally. ABCNews.com even had to correct a report about the number of attendees which was erroneously attributed to the network. Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks, the organizer of the event, made that claim. He would later say, “I regret misrepresenting the network as [ABC's] coverage that day was fair and honest.” And from NoonET Saturday to NoonET Sunday, ABC News Radio referenced the rally in 69 separate newscasts.
Read it in full.
79 Responses to “CNN’s Sanchez, ABC’s Trapper and CBS to FOX News: You Lie”
Of course, TMSF omits the fact that a very popular local rock band gave a “free concert” beforehand which probably doubled the numbers of attendees to Obama's speech. My relatives in Portland describe it as the new SF, and Portland has more drugs and such goodies available than any place on the Left Coast. Or am I wrong, TMSF?
Wrong link above. Here should be the time-lapse photo, though I have a feeling that the substance of the event escapes a lot of people on this thread. A DC cop told DesertC over a million. I'm sure you'll say they were all circling the block again and again just to walk by that camera.
Oh yeah, Fox may have misstated, but compared to the usual all-over-like-a-cheap-suit coverage the media gives to most events, they really downplayed and underplayed, just like Fox may have overplayed, the event. Maybe a bit unbalanced, but still FAIR!
A CNN van with a snarky S. Florida adrenalin freak like Sanchez in it isn't covering the event, it's polluting it!
Sanchez is typical of CNN these days, lib media stooping to new depths in desperation about the Dems' debacle with health care. Sanchez is nearly uber-left MSNBC material; he was so militant recently he deliberately, rudely interrupted and scoffed at a critique of the Dems' health plan by one of the best-known “single-payer” adocates in the USA and the rest of the world, too, Steffie Woolhandler.
“Maybe a bit unbalanced, but still FAIR!”
More trustworthy and less predictable than the rest of the lib media and their current avant-garde darling, menagerie MSNBC (going ultra-left to distinguish itself, albeit through extremist controversy).
Fox is a non-lib-lock-step heretic among the lib media (filling a deliberately suppressed, not merely neglected, mainstream market), hence the vile treatment of it by the rest of its “peers.”
That time-lapse picture of people marching down Pennsylvania Avenue looks impressive from above and far away because it seems people are shoulder to shoulder. There are plenty of street level videos that show the real crowd density – lots of people AND lots of empty pavement.
Actually you are, the drug scene here is much calmer than in CA or Seattle from what I have seen and what I have read and a whole lot less violent than the drug scene in the midwest(and this comes from someone that does not seek the scene out but generally has many friends in it, probably due to age). Crime is basically non-existent here compared to my home state of IN and the police are generally nice guys that when some one is doing something wrong no one has an issue talking to police. The police sent a jackboot response to the druggies in the 90's and they scurried back to LA rather swiftly after attempting to set up shop.
You are correct they did have a band to open but I have yet to meet anyone that went to see just them or went to see them and left but I have talked to many people that were sad that they were stuck in the streets and did not get in. I also heard “did you here Obama is coming??” for about two weeks before hand but Portland is freakishly politically active. Even if you halve his turn out though how exactly does that hurt him considering 35k is still a good bit larger then the Repub turn out for their ticket in the election?
I would not describe this place anywhere near SF. To be honest its very personally conservative but socially liberal place much more comparable to Wisconsin than CA especially SF. The streets are relatively clean here because the citizens love their town and take pride in it, hell even I find myself picking up trash and throwing it in the proper container when I am waiting on a bus or train. Most of my life I have lived by the creed of viewing others and their actions in a very socialist and helpful way and treating myself like a fascist and expecting a great deal from myself. Portland is the only place in the country that I have felt at home that way since I am not alone in that way of looking at the world. I will not stick up for many things but I will fight to the death for Portland since this is the most amazing place with some of the best people I have ever met while I moved all around this country. It also helped make me a big one for states rights though since if OR was left to their own devices it would be a magical place to live, the people are great, the elected leaders are generally pretty great(even the Senator I helped vote out was a good guy with a good record that I just disagreed with some of his stances) and everyone just works hard and is community oriented, I cant think of anything more American. It restored my faith in my nation when I moved here but that is because before here I lived in KY, IN, CA, FL, OH and to be honest the moral corruption and general political and infrastructure corruption were a constant weight on my mind.
Sorry one last point Portland LOOKS way worse than SF because more people than not dress like freaks and are covered in tattoo's or have a face full of metal studs but they actually act very differently then they look, and that could cause confusion and may be the reason that it is veiwed that way. A common bumper sticker is “Keep Portland Weird” and the big “hang out” place is Powell's which is a 4 story bookstore down town. Its a strange place, people dont watch tv they read instead. Also I lived in North FL not South FL so I have little knowledge of that area other than it is really pretty to vacation there
.
As a Wisconsin native, I can appreciate what my relatives tell me, as they are originally cheeseheads. They certainly like living in Portland, but although the drug scene is quiet, it's distasteful to them, that's all. And my wife, as a former Leg Asst. to Sen. Sarbanes, outed Hatfield on the Trans-African Pipeline scandal back in the '80s, and he gave the bribes back and apologized, so corruption does exist, and the Oregonian reporter told me at my kitchen table that there were seven scams the O had been unable to catch clean ol' Mark on. I was a Dem back then and the Reagan Revolution was beginning to affect my politics, but I've lived in MI [U of Mich, Ann Arbor 3 yrs], MN, Missourah, MA [where I have a Cape Cod home], FL, DC [20yrs], NY & CA [several months each] & Chicago for ten years as an Amoco Exec. as well as six countries abroad in my FSO career. FL , IL, & MA are the most corrupt [except for NYC & LA, where I worked in Dem politics], but overseas I can assure you that the two EU countries I've lived in, the UK & France, aren't as good as the ol' USA, including their much vaunted health plans. And forget about the Middle East and Far East. As a Political Officer, I got to see the sordid side of the countries I worked in and like sausage-making, it wasn't pretty.
BTW, I understood from the pictures and video that the Obama Portland event was outdoors, so how some people couldn't get “in” baffles me. I understand that the band was used as a “draw,” something I employed when on Gene McCarthy's national staff back in '68 [with mariachi bands in the CA primary in San Berdoo.] It's not dishonest, just worth mentioning. [I also worked on Mondale's staff in '84.]
Just asking…..
There are at least half-a-million and the DC cop said over a million folks there, and these people represent tens of millions of people who couldn't get there but wanted to. You must have missed Nancy P's lament that 2010 could have a ginormous catastrophe for the Dems if they don't watch their backs. Like everything else, however, she didn't make sense because her inane leadership skill-set, or lack of same, is one of the causes of the coming repeat of 1994.
Too bad Peter Jennings won't be around to scold the American people for having a “temper tantrum.” Always enlightening to be advised by a Canadian high-school dropout.
I recommend Jonah Goldberg's excellent “Liberal Fascism” for exploring the underlying dynamic in movements of the left and right which try to exclude opposition by any and all means possible. In the USA, we are protected by the marvelous First Amendment, but in the UK, for example, libel laws constantly hamper free speech because even if no infraction is committed, a person can be tied up in litigious expensive lawsuits by wealthy or influential “victims” supposedly slandered, even if what the “slander” says is true. Ditto for France, where I worked and had to sit in court hearings as a Vice Consul. France today is essentially an efficient fascist state where opposition is thwarted by a myriad of means by the government, ditto for Switzerland, the MOST efficient fascist state in the world, according to our American ambassador in my day!
Well, I love hangin' in bookstores & loved SF in the day, where I was at the old Family Dog and saw the Dead on 800 mics of windowpane while Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen, for whom I was the bouncer, doorman, et al, in Ann Arbor, opened for them. City Lights was my fave hangout, but then I joined the State Dept and life got serious. Seriously better too, but that's another story.
N. Florida is very different from S. Florida, which is an extension in Boca of NYC & New England, and in Miami of South America. Miami is the most cosmopolitan city in the WORLD, with the highest percentage of foreign born inhabitants of any major metropolis anywhere. My daughter is a student at U.Miami and loves it, as do I. The B & N there on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables is virtually a human biodiversity test tube, with at least a dozen languages being spoken at the Starbucks in the store, where I hang out and drink chai. I gave a talk on Iran there a couple of years ago and keep in touch with the foreign affairs folks there.
As entertaining as I find this “debate” to be, I nonetheless feel compelled to point out just how far everyone has deviated from the initial subject of this post (the factual accuracy of the question asked in the Fox News ad “How Did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN miss this story?”).
Fox News made the assertion that the other news networks missed covering the 9/12 protest, which is demonstrably untrue. As Sanchez points out, Bill O'Reilly, himself, had a story about CNN's coverage of the 9/12 event.
How can Fox News assert that its competitor did not cover an event after one of its lead commentators writes a story criticizing its competitor's coverage of the event? Talk about cognitive dissonance!
So, rather than going all “Joe Wilson” on Fox News, I'll simply point out that in this case, Fox News' ad was “factually incorrect.”
They stopped letting people in due to security. That was why. I just moved to Portland a few years ago so that is probably why it seems so oddly “clean” to me, that and I moved here from IN with a few year stop over in LA so my bar had been greatly lowered by then as well.
In fairness to Fox News, the 1.7 million number cited by Glenn Beck was apparently verified by the University of I Don't Remember.
“I recommend Jonah Goldberg's excellent 'Liberal Fascism'”
Dave, I've read it, and while the many critics on the Left are reflexively defensive about it, he's perfectly right about how fascistic behavior has been a staple of the Left in particular here in the States since the 1930s. (A more obscure work written at that time, Lawrence Dennis's “The Coming American Fascism” is as accurate as the book by Rex Tugwell, the New Deal architect, that was written later, with a 1960s-ish flair ["The Emerging Constitution"], in describing as well as justifying, or at least rationalizing, why it made sense.)
To this day I've never been refuted when I've said that the early 1990s HMO-”alliance”-based plan of Hillary Clinton's was fascistic, _and_ that “single-payer” advocates on the far Left (such as Melvin Konner) were either too afraid or too dishonest to say so (because it exposes the nature of so much of modern liberalism and authoritarianism since the capital-P Progressive era and especially since the 1930s and our modern welfare state establishment).
ObamaCare, a managed cartel, has elements of this same fascistic scheme, but was more transparent incrementalist takeover attempt and movement toward “single-payer” with its “public option” component. (Note that this “public option” is the main obstacle to passage and a major object of rejection by much of the public and non-lib Dems in Washington, but is the core of the lib Dems' effort, and is far from doomed at this moment. I still say the co-op fall-back may be taken and modified and augmented to be more like the public option eventually, as one lib Dem strategy.)
“Too bad Peter Jennings won't be around to scold the American people for having a 'temper tantrum.'”
They're more sloppy this time. That even extends to saying “yell” rather than “shout.”
This is way off topic but I did have to note one of my co-workers that is a huge fan of Glenn Beck is also from WI originally and is now in Portland, I will have to ask if he has any relatives in your area as we may know some common people, small world indeed!
dave in boca says 'miams is most cosmopolitan city in the world.'
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha.
You're so small town Boca.
And not an expert on differences between south florida and north florida. The cubanos alone, as well as the michuacanos laugh in your face.
You need to get out. You have obviously been no where recently in Asia, Australia, or elsewhere. Miami cosmopolitan indeed. Most of us who have been there see the dreck, the corruption, the in-fighting, the lack of ability to think in miami except by racial group.
Your posturing is laughable.
The issue is not about dave in boca. Even though bocaboy tries to take over the post with his private wailing about his own boils.
Just this: those of us who walked the walk, remember that vets marching in DC, war protesters marching in DC, ALL were rankled by the 'official numbers.' This is nothing new. Not at all. Your memory boca, is poor.
[...] Read the rest here: CNN’s Sanchez, ABC’s Trapper and CBS to FOX News: You Lie [...]
I've read the Miami “cosmopolitan” fact in the Daily Mail & on a UN population survey and saw it on network news, which even semi-lits like urself watch.
Not many michuacanos down here, they're in Chicago. You obviously are ESL if you didn't catch my noting a lot of Hispanics in Miami, of whom less than half are Cuban and a very small fraction Mexican.
I lived in DC around 20 years and have marched and watched marches before you were ever there.
Curb your delirium….
Indeed, and I'm going to a high school reunion next year in Milwaukee anyway, so I'm ready to network all over again.
you're wrong on all counts Boca. Again. And your little social news about going to your high school reunion, your social life has nothing to do with this article. Again.
The count on Wash DC marches for the public to be seen and heard, are always contested. Going back to the mid 1800s.
If you Boca were 'everywhere' as you claim 'before anyone else was,' that sounds like dementia on your part. Your inability to count straight about who was where when without you even knowing others here, only highlights your usual self centered illogic.
Had never heard of “Brobambi” before, not a term this critic of the President would use.
I think I prefer
One
Big
A**ed
Mistake
America
And my criticism has nothing to do with race. I'd have loved to have seen Colin Powell as President, or JC Watts.
That was a reply to to TMSF, who was talking to me about possible mutual Wisconsin pals. But thanks for being that nasty old neighbor who tells everybody to keep off his lawn….
No dementia on my part, but you seem to be inaccurate, which is the usual case with delirium.
Your autistic remark about being in marches brought my response. Sorry for descending to your level.
Enough now Daveinboca and all others: TMV won't tolerate your use of special needs kids' diagnosis to insult others, Dave.
The comment board is for commenting on the topic of the article, not each other.
thanks.
dr.e
Sorry Dr E, I think a good part of this side track was caused by me which was not the intent. I think once you find a “nice” topic to discuss with someone you thought you may never agree with things tend to get out of hand. Then that conversation got blended in with an argument and things got ugly, for that I blame myself. That and I ramble and roll through topics like a truck driver goes through cups of coffee, sorry for my part.
All is well MagicalSkyFather. We're all rolling forward on track again. Thank you for your comment on this aspect.
dr.e
Scott W. Somerville–
If there's a “legitimate photo”, where is it?
Some legitimate source would be very useful to support your assertion.
comments that violate TMV rules for commenters have been removed. The flow of comments that were on topic are not affected. TMV comment area is for comments on the topic of the article.
thanks.
dr.e
Editor TMV