BOTH CABLE NEWS NETS BOTCH SCOTUS CALL ON OBAMACARE

In the end, both major cable news networks got it wrong — CNN and Fox News both reporting that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned the key individual mandate portion of what has come to be known as Obamacare. It did not. By a 5-4 vote, the high court upheld the law. But for nine minutes CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and John King discussed the decision as if it had not. Finally at 10:18 the network issued a correction. On Fox News, a headline reading “Supreme Court Finds Individual Mandate Unconstitutional” was originally displayed, although anchor Bill Hemmer remarked that it could take several minutes to digest the ruling. Moments later the network cut to correspondent Shannon Bream at the court who began reading the decision on air. When Hemmer asked how many pages were included in the decision, Bream replied, more than 100. He then asked her to continue reading it and return later. Meanwhile, the print press was gloating over the miscues of its cable rivals. An AP editor sent out a staff memo saying, “Stop taunting on social networks about CNN and others’ SCOTUS ruling mistake and the AP getting it right. … That’s not the impression we want to reflect as an organization.” The Los Angeles Times commented on its website: “Unfortunately, seasoned journalists let their anxiety/enthusiasm/thirst-to-be-first overwhelm their better judgment Thursday morning.”