While Fox News lays claim to being the first network to confirm the Palin news at 10:35amET, CNBC is saying it was first to report the pick through reporting by CNBC’s John Harwood. The screenshot to the right is from 9:31amET.
So we wondered, if Harwood had the confirmation, why weren’t MSNBC and NBC News reporting it? Why did it take another hour for NBC News to confirm the story and for the network to produce a special report? We went to TVEyes and found an interesting exchange from Morning Joe at 9:41amET.
Joe Scarborough: Is Murphy finding out who this is gonna be?
Mika Brzezinksi: Well Harwood is… (checks her Blackberry)
Andrea Mitchell: um, mmm.
Scarborough: Alright, we were told not to read that.Advertisement
At 10:02 Scarborough said, “Right now we’ve got, what, John Harwood and The Chicago Tribune, Jill Zuckman reporting that it is [Palin].”
And by 10:13, NBC’s political director Chuck Todd clears it up during an exchange with Scarborough: “Well, look, I think we — I know that John’s working this really hard. He’s got one source. We want to wait until we get a second source.”
And they did — at 10:37.