by Nomad
Finally, Americans got some good news today. (At least, Obama did.)
Against expectations, the Supreme Court ruled that the individual mandate- a key component of the Affordable Care Act- is after all constitutional. It was really a 50-50 call because with the recent decisions by the court, even the most preposterous result was quite possible.
Of course if you were a devoted viewer of CNN and Fox News, you might have never known what the Supreme Court ruled. Here are screen shots (courtesy of ThinkProgress) of what those so-called news organization reported.
This sort of thing is not so unexpected from Fox News. Nine times out of ten, there is a major disconnect from reality. In this case, it is easy to write it off as merely wishful thinking. Between reporting half-truth, opinions as proof, phony experts, and sheer incompetent reporting, this is pretty much par for the course with Fox. Only the most gullible viewer expects to hear anything very factual. I suspect people don't really watch Fox News for reality. They'd rather see confirmation of their own viewpoint.
I am sure that, when the truth was finally revealed to the Fox News audience it came as quite a shock. So sad. Well, not really. As Eric Alterman said about the network:
Fox News is nothing if not impressive. No matter how harsh the criticism it endures, the network somehow always manages to prove itself even worse than we had previously imagined.
CNN, however, is a different story. It used to be a reputable news organization. Well, okay, that was back in the days when Ted Turner ran things. Before the Wolf Blitzer blunder machine and Piers "this is what uppity sounds like, America" Morgan.
That was a time before, the CNN executives decided that a race to the bottom of journalistic standards with Fox News was a race that they could possibly win. It is no wonder that CNN's ratings are in the toilet.
According to a recent article in NY Daily News, CNN ratings plummeted in the second quarter this year to its lowest ratings since 1991.
Most corporate executives would look at those numbers and ask them themselves what can be done to change this trend. Apparently those executives do not work at CNN.Viewership for all three major cable news channels from March 26 to June 22 was lower this year than in 2011 - modestly at Fox News Channel, sharper at MSNBC and precipitously at CNN.In primetime, CNN averaged 446,000 total viewers, with 129,000 in the 25-54 demographic that advertisers covet.That's down 35% and 41%, respectively, from the second quarter of 2011.
You might think it was a problem of jumping the gun and being a bit too fast on the draw and all those other gunslinger expressions. But it was not only CNN and Fox News. That Liberal-impersonating Huffington Post also reported it wrong. You can also add NPR and Time.
Instead of looking into how such a stupid accident like this could have happened, and how it could be prevented, this will probably be the least reported news of the day.
Once upon a time, when it came to news reporting, solid reputations for accurate reporting meant something. Now, you can probably get more accurate news by overhearing conversations on any public bus.
Once upon a time, when it came to news reporting, solid reputations for accurate reporting meant something. Now, you can probably get more accurate news by overhearing conversations on any public bus.
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Update: Nice Photoshopping!
Related articlesUpdate: Nice Photoshopping!