MSNBC is now giving President Obama less live coverage than Fox News. In the last two days, the former lean forward network has been the only cable news channel not to live cover two Obama speeches.
Yesterday, when the president made remarks at a mosque in Baltimore, MSNBC briefly mentioned the story in the 1 p.m. hour with a report from Ron Allen at the White House. Meanwhile, CNN provided live coverage for more than 40 minutes of the mid-afternoon speech. FNC listened in live for about 10 minutes.
Then this morning, at the annual prayer breakfast, CNN listened in to Pres. Obama’s remarks beginning at 9:30 a.m. for about 25 minutes, Fox News was live with the speech even longer than that, while MSNBC remained with its coverage from New Hampshire. MSNBC did report on the prayer breakfast in the 10 a.m. hour, but has decided to stick with coverage of politics, rather than long speeches from the outgoing commander-in-chief.
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In part, it is the natural circle of political life. The outgoing president is going to get less attention that the people who are competing to replace him, but for MSNBC to not provide the President with even a few minutes of live airtime is a bit hard to swallow.
We get it. MSNBC is excited about the fact that they will be finally televising a presidential debate tonight, but ignoring the live remarks of Obama is a disservice to their viewers. Ratings for the debate won’t be hurt by the decision to give 10-20 minutes of live coverage to remarks by the President Of The United States.
The decision to not live cover Obama’s speeches makes MSNBC look like a desperate network that is chasing election year ratings. If MSNBC wants to reshape itself as a news network, a good first step would be actually covering the news live as it happens.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
