Flying home to the United States after five long years as a prisoner in Cuba, Alan Gross caught up with his wife, Judy. He also caught up on the news, and White House photos reveal his first exposure to American news after leaving Cuba was CNN–first “New Day,” and then later, “CNN Newsroom.”
The government jet that made the trip from Havana to Joint Base Andrews–complete with the presidential seal–appears to have had cable news on throughout the flight, but only CNN appears in photos. In the past, it’s been said that the president doesn’t watch cable news, and on one occasion he joked with voters in an Ohio bar about changing the TVs away from Fox.
In one White House photo, CNN’s Carol Costello is flat-out ignored by Gross as he spoke by phone with President Obama. So CNN was on, but there’s no guarantee anybody onboard the flight was actually watching.