CNN and MSNBC both cut away from the criminally indicted and convicted felon ex-president Donald Trump as he spoke live on May 31, less than 24 hours after a jury of his peers unanimously found him guilty in New York on 34 counts related to falsifying business records in order to illegally influence the 2016 election.
The decisions, along with coverage of the trial’s aftermath in general, spoke to how the nation’s divisions are reflected in the media and the way journalists continue to wrestle with how best to deal with Trump as he is well into his third run for the presidency.
In what was falsely billed as a news conference, the former president hit familiar themes with his anger about the case, criticism of some figures involved, and campaign-style attacks against his anticipated opponent, President Joe Biden. Trump walked off after about 40 minutes without taking any questions.
“Clearly, without a teleprompter, he’s raging against almost everything,” CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said. The network pulled away from Trump about halfway through his bitter rant, followed shortly by MSNBC. Broadcast networks did not carry the event.
Fox News Channel and Newsmax, rightwing propaganda networks that appeal to Trump’s radical supporters, carried the speech in full. His rhetoric of hate has traditionally boosted their ratings.
Both CNN and MSNBC immediately told viewers that much of what Trump had said was misleading or flat-out false. As a habitual liar, his unsupported tirades have been a concern for years among some networks about carrying Trump’s remarks live, as illustrated when Trump complained almost daily after his trial sessions. MSNBC mostly skipped those entirely.
FACT-CHECKING AND ANALYSIS STEP IN
Blitzer called on CNN’s fact-checker, Daniel Dale, to note that there was “not a shred of evidence” to indicate that Biden had anything to do with Trump’s prosecution. He also questioned Trump statements about who was allowed to testify for his defense, and crime statistics in New York City.
An onscreen headline at MSNBC read, “Trump’s Remarks Riddled with Falsehoods and Attacks.”
An MSNBC analyst, Catherine Christian, said she believed that Trump violated a gag order still in place from his trial by talking about a witness, his former “fixer” Michael Cohen, even though Cohen was not identified by name. Trump called him a “sleazebag.”
Cohen, on a victory tour of sorts with post-verdict appearances on MSNBC and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” sent a response that CNN’s Kasie Hunt read on the air. He called Trump’s remarks, in part, “broken-brain word manure.”
While Trump was still talking, CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson said the speech was “a real blown opportunity for him and a reminder of how much he’s aged.”
On MSNBC, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said she was surprised that Trump and his team did not craft remarks more carefully, knowing more eyes would be upon him following his guilty verdicts. Trump, further stained as a convicted felon, appeared to be speaking without a script.
Onscreen headlines on Fox News captured some of the former president’s lies: “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 an encapsulation of how he’s going to deal with this in his campaign going forward,” Fox News’ Bret Baier said.
DIVERGING FRONT-PAGE HEADLINES
The morning after Trump’s guilty verdict on all 34 counts he was charged with, New York residents could pass by newsstands with front-page headlines that spoke to differences in coverage.
“GUILTY,” read a banner in The New York Times, same as the front of the Daily News. The New York Post’s headline was “INJUSTICE.”
Shortly after Trump was finished, commentators on Newsmax were criticizing CNN and MSNBC for cutting away from remarks by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
CNN said in a statement that it was unprecedented and newsworthy when a former president was convicted of 34 felonies and spoke about it.
“When carrying the former president’s comments live no longer held news value for our audience, we moved on to other programming including relevant fact-checking of the remarks while continuing to monitor them for news value,” the network said.
The differences in approach raised questions about how networks that do not specifically seek Trump viewers will handle live appearances in the upcoming campaign.
Some networks reported strong viewership numbers for coverage of the verdict on May 30. Reportedly 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 exhaustively, scored a victory over traditional leader Fox in prime-time, averaging 3.2 million viewers for its second biggest night of the year behind Biden’s State of the Union address. Fox had 3 million viewers and CNN 1.2 million.
