As NBC’s Chuck Todd Tweeted this morning, there are four big decisions coming from the Supreme Court this week — its final week before recess. Those cases are same sex marriage, DOMA, the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action.
A 7 – 1 ruling to send the affirmative action case back to a lower court was the first to come this morning, triggering special reports from the broadcasters.
Unlike last year, when a complicated decision and a rush to be first resulted in incorrect information on the health care decision airing on Fox News and CNN, this time around, the TV networks appeared to be on top of their game. All of the channels noted that a decision was handed down, but waited to report on what it was until they were absolutely certain of the decision. CNN — which took the brunt of the criticism last time around for its reporting — reported the decision after the other TV networks.
NBC News has Pete Williams at the court, ABC has (soon-to-be-moving to London) Terry Moran and CBS has Jan Crawford.
Of course, with three big decisions still to come, the tightrope journalists have to walk while covering the court is very much still standing.