NEW YORK (AP) — CNN and MSNBC both broke away from former President Donald Trump as he spoke live Friday, less than 24 hours after he was convicted in his hush-money trial in New York.
The decisions, along with coverage of the aftermath of the trial in general, spoke to how the country’s divisions are reflected in the media and the way journalists continue to grapple with how best to deal with Trump now that he has is well into his third attempt to become president.
In what was billed as a news conference, the former president touched on familiar themes with his anger over the case, criticism of some of the figures involved and campaign-style attacks on his expected opponent. President Joe Biden. Trump walked away after about 40 minutes without asking any questions.
“It’s clear he’s railing against almost everything without a teleprompter,” said CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. The network pulled away from Trump about halfway through his speech, followed shortly after by MSNBC. Fox News Channel and Newsmax, networks more popular with Trump fans, carried the speech in its entirety. Broadcast networks didn’t carry it.
Both CNN and MSNBC immediately told viewers that some of what Trump had said was misleading or outright untrue. That has been a concern for years among some networks about carrying Trump’s comments live, as illustrated when Trump spoke almost daily after his court hearings; MSNBC would probably skip this one altogether.
FACT CHECK AND ANALYSIS STEP IN
Blitzer called on CNN’s fact-checker Daniel Dale to note that there is “not a shred of evidence” to suggest Biden had anything to do with Trump’s prosecution. He also questioned Trump’s statements about who could testify in his defense, and crime statistics in New York City.
An on-screen headline from MSNBC read: “Trump’s Comments Full of Falsehoods and Attacks.”
An MSNBC analyst, Catherine Christian, said she believed Trump violated a silence order still in effect during his trial by talking about a witness, his former “fixer” Michael Cohen, even though Cohen was not mentioned by name . Trump called him a “sleazebag.”
Cohen, during a victory tour of sorts with post-verdict appearances on MSNBC and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” sent a profane response that CNN’s Kasie Hunt read on air. He called Trump’s comments, in part, “broken-brain word-dung.”
While Trump was still speaking, CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson said the speech was “a real opportunity for him and a reminder of how old he is.” On MSNBC, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said she was surprised Trump and his team didn’t make their comments more carefully, knowing more eyes would be on him after the conviction. The former president appeared to speak without a script.
Headlines on Fox News summarized some of the former president’s comments: “Trump: We’re dealing with a corrupt government,” “Trump: We’re fighting for our Constitution,” and “Trump: This is bigger than my presidency.”
“I think what you saw in this is a summary of how he’s going to handle this in his future campaign,” said Fox News’ Bret Baier.
DIFFERENT HEADINGS ON THE FRONT PAGE
The morning after Trump’s guilty verdict on all 34 counts he was charged with, New York residents could walk past newsstands with front-page headlines talking about disparities in reporting. “GUILTY,” read a banner in The New York Times, the same as the one on the front of the Daily News. The New York Post headline was “INJUSTICE.”
Shortly after Trump finished speaking Friday, commentators on Newsmax criticized CNN and MSNBC for refraining from comments from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. CNN said in a statement that it is unprecedented and newsworthy for a former president to be convicted of 34 crimes and speak about it.
“When bringing the former president’s comments live became no longer newsworthy to our audience, we transitioned to other programming, including relevant fact-checking of the comments, while continuing to monitor them for newsworthiness,” the network said.
MSNBC did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on his decision.
The differences in approach raise questions about how networks that aren’t specifically looking for Trump viewers will handle live appearances in the upcoming campaign. Will fairness force all networks to fully air both candidates’ acceptance speeches, a traditional part of campaign summers? How will the decisions be made?
Meanwhile, some networks reported strong ratings for Thursday’s verdict coverage: 4.4 million for Fox News Channel, 3.4 million for MSNBC and 2.4 million for CNN, the Nielsen company said. Broadcast numbers were not immediately available.
MSNBC, which has covered the Trump case extensively for its left-wing audience, scored a prime-time victory over traditional leader Fox, averaging 3.2 million viewers for the year’s second-biggest night after Biden’s State of the Union Address. Fox had 3 million viewers and CNN 1.2 million.
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David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him up http://twitter.com/dbauder.
