CNN, Fox News Share ‘Error of The Year’ Award

By Alex Weprin 

The Poynter Institute’s “Regret The Error” column released its list of “The Best (And Worst) Media Errors and Corrections for 2012,” and CNN and Fox News shared the top prize. The “Error of the Year” award was shared by the two networks for wrongly reporting that the Supreme Court had declared the “individual Mandate” in President Obama’s healthcare bill unconstitutional.

CNN is given particular criticism for making the mistake on TV, on its website, in email blasts and on social media, but is given praise for owning up and apologizing for the error. Fox News was criticized for not apologizing for the error, and for failing to acknowledge the original mistake.

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Other TV news programs that made the cut was CNN’s “Early Start,” which woke up some poor sap at 6:30 AM when they thought they were calling a guest, and CNBC’s Darren Rovell, who reported on a teenager’s hoax as though it was a true story.

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