So What’s The Big Story This Week On CNN And Fox News?

Both CNN and Fox News have Sunday morning programs that analyze the media. On CNN it’s Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter. On Fox News It’s MediaBuzz with Howard Kurtz. This morning both programs chose to lead off their broadcasts with the same story that essentially takes MSNBC to task for doing respectable journalism.

CNN, Fox News Go After MSNBC

MSNBC has been at the forefront of the Chris Christie Bridge-Gate scandal from its inception. They broke the story on television with the help of the local Bergen Record newspaper in New Jersey. Since then they have scored some significant scoops that have rattled the Christie regime. One example of that occurred last week when Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer told MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki that the Christie administration held Sandy relief funds hostage to force her to support a real estate project that Christie favored. Not surprisingly, Christie retaliated by dispatching his spokesman to swing back at the messenger:

Christie spokesman Colin Reed: MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Governor Christie and almost gleeful in their efforts attacking him, even taking the unprecedented step of producing and airing a nearly three-minute attack ad against him this week.

Notice that nowhere in that statement did Reed dispute the actual content of MSNBC’s reporting. It was just a self-serving attack on the network’s liberal reputation. The example he offered of an “unprecedented” three-minute attack ad (video below) was really just a thirty second mock video demonstrating how Christie’s opponents could use the scandal against him should he run for president in 2016. And it wasn’t unprecedented either, as Fox News actually did produce a four minute anti-Obama ad prior to the 2012 election that they deleted after it had become an embarrassment.

In a week that included a Supreme Court ruling against Network Neutrality, two speeches by President Obama, and a major book release about Fox News CEO Roger Ailes (The Loudest Voice In The Room), both CNN and Fox led off their weekly media programs with stories about MSNBC’s coverage of Christie. CNN had an on-screen graphic with the pressing question, is “MSNBC Attacking Chris Christie?” While Fox went for the more macho “Christie Declares War On MSNBC.” Of course, everything on Fox News is war (Christmas, class, liberty, capitalism, etc.). Fox also placed Christie’s war with MSNBC at the top of their lie-riddled Fox Nation website. [See the acclaimed ebook Fox Nation vs. Reality for proof of Fox Nation’s catalog of lies]

There was nothing in either program that refuted the factual accuracy of MSNBC’s coverage, but the tone was nonetheless disparaging. The real question, however, is why did they both put this story at the front of their broadcasts. Was it really more important than the other media news of the week? Or were they simply jealous that they didn’t get these scoops themselves? It may be significant that MSNBC had a rare Nielsen ratings victory for the week that featured the Bridge-Gate reporting. Could that have been what drove CNN and Fox to criticize it? Either way it makes both networks look awfully petty for attacking a rival for doing their job.

Lawrence O’Donnell’s fake Christie ad:

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13 thoughts on “So What’s The Big Story This Week On CNN And Fox News?

  1. Regardless of their reasons for attacking MSNBC, both fox and CNN by not disputing the factual reporting, in essence, have admitted they don’t do journalism.

    For fox, this is SOP.

    Since they are starting at the bottom of the heap, CNN should forget about trying “sensationalism” and just do what they used to do when they were #1….journalism.

    • Well said if only they would listen. Why try to out fox Fox?

  2. Christie ain’t getting away with this shit! CNN will eventually have to act like a news organization and start covering the facts of this story. We know what Fox will do.

  3. CNN and Fokkk Noise Media deals only with talking points and the hate spewing from the right. If they can’t bash the president and /or the left(dems) they got nothing, and talking points and hate spewing gets a little boring. I have a game I play, don’t watch Fokkk or CNN bug I flip to their channel and in 10 seconds, president Obama’s name comes up in their negative spin. Anyone, try it, you will see what I mean.

  4. Rachel Maddow, Steve Kornacki, Chris Hayes , Lawrence O’Donnell , Joy Reid and others are journalist . Chuck Todd, David Gregory, and Joke Scarbrough are mouthpieces for the right, no journalist.

    • your assertion that rachel and crew are journalists while chuck todd and crew are right leaning is scary for the level of stupidity it shows. please stop posting as you are incapable of rational thought.

  5. So far, there has been no evidence produced to back up her claims. That has been pointed out by several news outlets. And prior to this , Zimmer was on record singing high praises for Christie. At this point, her accusation is in the same credibility range as Harry Reid claiming that Mitt Romney didn’t pay any income tax – and we all know where that accusation stands now.

    • Yeah–Mitt is going to be tried for racketeering–so yeah, we know–Why don’t you?

      • No, he was not right. Harry Reid never produced the evidence to back up his claim. And citing Thom Hartmann as proof of anything is sheer folly. That’s like citing Alex Jones to back up some idiotic assertion.

        In North Korea, they operate under the premise of guilty until proven innocent, but we live in the USA. Reid had to cite evidence to back up his accusation, and he never did. Harry Reid lied.

        • Maybe you should read the links Mark has provided. The Bloomberg News article, which is referred to on the Thom Hartman post, cites a 2007 tax filing proving that Harry Reid was right. If you’re running for President, the vetting process, while not legally required, forces a candidate to come clean with some tax information. Now you, too, can view this information and not appear so uninformed. (again) Romney didn’t do anything illegal but he did take advantage of a loophole that Reid was referring to. It’s really indisputable.

  6. I read the article. It doesn’t say that Romney paid NO taxes, it mainly called the unitrust/charity a way to defer taxes, and it did not say that was the total picture of Romney’s income portfolio. Hartmann is once again blowing smoke.

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