CNN Doesn’t Let Palin “News” Get In Way Of Jackson Coverage

by Steve Krakauer | 7:04 pm, July 3rd, 2009

» 4 comments

king_7-6 While Fox News and MSNBC have turned the surprise news of Gov. Sarah Palin‘s resignation into a wall-to-wall afternoon and evening of crashed coverage, there’s one news outlet that decided to stick to the script.

For “The Most Trusted Name in News,” CNN, Palin was a story — and a big one. But throughout The Situation Room and beyond, it was just one of the many topics touched on by the network. If Palin got the gold, Michael Jackson came in with the silver.

The MJ story is nothing new at CNN — the network has covered it more than any other cable news outlet during the last week, with prime time devoted almost entirely to the various story lines. But in the wake of a major political news development, the Jackson focus was striking.

The push to get Jackson news on the air was never more evident than just before 5:30pmET, when fill-in anchor Suzanne Malveaux introduced CNN’s senior political analyst, Bill Schneider. “Suzanne, you may be surprised to hear there was something political about Michael Jackson,” Schneider began.

What really is surprising is the fact that Schneider never talked about the Palin news (or got to do any political analysis). Instead, he did his Jackson hit as planned, and was quickly followed by State of the Union anchor John King, who discussed his pre-taped interview with Gen. Colin Powell. About? You guessed it — Michael Jackson.

CNN’s Jackson coverage has been far and away the most expansive of any cable news network, but when political analysts start commenting on Jacko instead of Palin, something odd is at work. The “gotcha” journalists at CNN were a little preoccupied.

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CNN, Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin, Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer

Jymn

CNN is no longer a source of reliable political coverage. It is indeed a network searching for its lost audience. It is not surprising that Palin lost out to Jackson in the network’s reporting the last few days. It needs the ratings. To hell with their rep.
jonjon66

CNN is such a wanna be Fox
BarbaraL

It’s true. I feel sorry for Anderson Cooper. I do want to note though that they had excellent Iran protest coverage the weekend before though, which was an epic fail for MSNBC.
CarrieWhite

CNN may have gone a bit overboard with the Michael Jackson coverage, but it’s Michael Jackson! The man is an icon. He changed the music industry with Thriller. He was the first Africa American to have his video on Mtv. He pioneered long form music videos with Thriller. After Thiller, he became a little out of touch with reality, but he is an icon and everyone around the world knows who he is. Does he deserve all this media coverage? IMO, yes. But I’m a fan, so I may be biased. I’m also sick of hearing about Politics, especially Sarah Palin. The election is over people. Move on to the next story.