The opening statements of the George Zimmerman murder trial are taking place this morning, and both HLN and MSNBC are taking them live. For HLN, which has been re-branding itself as the second coming of Court TV, the decision isn’t surprising, but MSNBC has not necessarily been known for its live court coverage recently.
We noted earlier this month that the channel was planning to provide “in-depth, continuing coverage, that would air “as news warrants.” While MSNBC will almost certainly cut away if there is a big Supreme Court decision, or new news on Edward Snowden‘s whereabouts, for a little while this morning, at least, the focus was on Zimmerman. MSNBC would move off of the trial around 9:50 AM.
Neither MSNBC now HLN’s coverage didn’t got off to auspicious starts, as a handful of curse words aired. In the case of MSNBC, the coverage was not on a delay, and on HLN, the person manning the audio switch missed the first few F-bombs. Chuck Todd would end up apologizing on MSNBC for the curse words, and promised to get the channel on a delay.
Neither Fox News or CNN are taking the statements live, but expect them to cut in with excerpts as the day goes on. Every channel is taking the coverage live on their respective websites.