" />

The Moderate Voice

An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right


You are here: Home / Media / CNN’s Sanchez, ABC’s Trapper and CBS to FOX News: You Lie

CNN’s Sanchez, ABC’s Trapper and CBS to FOX News: You Lie

by 69 Comments

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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM1f5xrOfGU&feature=player_embedded

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:

  • Fox News maven Roger Ailes is a smart newsman and a media genius. But this ad is a serious misstep, given the reason why Fox News was purportedly created. Conservatives and Republicans felt shut out by the mainstream media, which they felt reported news coming from a series of liberal assumptions and blatant biases. This ad now gives plenty of ammunition to those who believe or argue that Fox News has morphed into exactly what it alleged about the liberal media. To all but its fans who love Sean Hannity’s show, it has become what it alleged the liberal media was.
  • Trapper’s experience on Twitter is telling. This specific incident aside, the bottom line is that there are some partisans who will say a fact is not a fact if they don’t want it to be a fact. They will brush aside Sanchez, and Trapper and CBS and either go on the attack against those who point to these denials (the best defense is a good offense) or try and change the subject (but CNN didn’t cover X story and Fox did). And they will pick up Fox’ explanation.
  • The Fox comment to Kurtz suggests that the network seeks to be what the New York Times used to be to the mainstream media: its de facto assignment editor. Once upon a time, in the mid to late 20th century, newspapers throughout the country and old-fashioned network news editors made their things-to-cover lists based on what the Times had on its front page. The subtext of the Fox argument now is that if the other networks don’t cover issues the way it does or the same issues, then it’s due to some kind of political bias versus the fact that news editors sometimes make different news judgments. Or it means that by not matching what Fox covers and the way it covers it, its competition is not covering it at all — even if they do cover it. (Get it?)
  • Sanchez is correct about Fox. Its coverage and talk shows are now dominated by an “us versus them” undercurrent. Whether intentionally or not, the network seems to be operating on a conclusion that by offering resentment-based coverage laced with lots of hot political talk peppered with rage and anger, it can garner a huge audience. And, it appears, that strategy is working.
  • Fox News has some excellent news professionals — as do all of the other networks. This ad was a disservice to those news pros at Fox, because it made their network look like an operation inaccurately attacking opponents and then trying to split verbal hairs to justify and ad that was neither accurate, nor fair or balanced.

    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.

    —TV Newser

    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.