Today, Fox News took out a full page ad in the Washington Post as well as the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal and New York Post asking, “How did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN Miss This Story?”
Well, those other networks were there.
NBC News had crews on the mall and correspondent Tom Costello reported live for NBC Nightly News Saturday. A Nightly News spokesperson tells TVNewser, “and more than 5.2 million viewers watched our coverage.” It was Weekend Nightly’s best Total Viewer delivery since April. MSNBC covered the gathering Saturday morning getting live shots from a reporter from NBC-owned WRC-TV.
ABC News was there too with reports for Good Morning America Saturday and Sunday. Kate Snow interviewed GOP Sen. Jim DeMint who was a speaker at the rally. ABCNews.com even had to correct a report about the number of attendees which was erroneously attributed to the network. Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks, the organizer of the event, made that claim. He would later say, “I regret misrepresenting the network as [ABC’s] coverage that day was fair and honest.” And from NoonET Saturday to NoonET Sunday, ABC News Radio referenced the rally in 69 separate newscasts.
And CBS News was there — with multiple crews — TV and radio. Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reported it as the lead story on Saturday’s CBS Evening News. CBS Radio News provided hourly reports throughout the day and CBSNews.com reported the story as the rotating lead all day, using Cordes’ video before it appeared in her Evening News story.
CNN was there as well, their Radio correspondent even got up close with the crowds. CNN also tells us deputy political director Paul Steinhauser was live at Freedom Plaza, CNN correspondent Kate Bolduan was live from the West Front of the Capitol, CNN All Platform Journalist Jim Spellman provided live hits all day after traveling for weeks on the actual Tea Party Express and filing reports for CNN and CNN.com along the way. “We had camera crews at various additional locations: shooting live video of the marchers, live video of the rally speakers, live video from the CNN Express, and two robotic cameras were in spots around the city capturing the magnitude of the event,” CNN tells us.
Reached for comment about the ad, Michael Tammero, VP of Marketing for Fox News tells TVNewser, “Generally speaking, it’s fair to say that from the tea party movement … to Acorn … to the march on 9/12, the networks either ignored the story, marginalized it or misrepresented the significance of it altogether.”