Egypt Crisis Sunday Night: Fox News And CNN Cover It Live, MSNBC…Wait, What?

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by Jon Bershad | 1:55 pm, January 31st, 2011

» 22 comments

Whether or not the current regime in Egypt does end up falling, the old phrase “the revolution will not be televised” has been proven decisively wrong. Of course, the lesser-known phrase “revolutions can take a long time and can only make for good television for so long” has also been proven true. So, what’s a 24-hour cable news network to do? Turns out that each outlet has had a slightly different solution to this dilemma.

To wit: Last night at 10 Fox News aired Geraldo Rivera talking Jordan; CNN showed Anderson Cooper talking with the Muslim Brotherhood, and MSNBC showed Chris Hansen talking dirty chat rooms. Hubba, hubba!

Now, MSNBC had been giving great Egypt coverage all weekend, but this was primetime; shouldn’t they have stayed with the story? Of course, on the flip side, said story has been unfolding gradually since last Tuesday and there’s only so many times you can cut to Richard Engel before the guy starts repeating himself.

Cable channel allegiances aside (there are a ton of examples from different days last week where we could catch CNN or Fox News covering something silly instead), how should a channel cover a story like this. It’s the biggest story in the world with amazing human drama and huge, world-wide ramifications, but eventually you have to air something else. When is it appropriate to cut away?

Check out the funny side by side comparison below:

anderson cooper, chris hansen, CNN, Egypt, fox news, Geraldo Rivera, msnbc

The Lantern of Truth

RRKING explains . Maddowner , O ‘ Dullard , Mattheuselah and The Torch are all off on weekends . What ? Do you want Donny Deutsch anchoring the coverage ?
Harry Flashman

They couldn’t find a way to link Sarah Palin to Egypt and had to take a break for more research.
The Lantern of Truth

RRKING back . So quit blanching , karping , meowing and wrenching about it . Get the straight news from Joy Behar ‘s Tweet Reports .
Harry Flashman

OOOOH! OOOOH!

Gibbsy is on Fox right now giving the issue his very best two-step bossa-nova tap dance spin. Lotsa ums, ahs, and uhs. Lying his ass off as usual.

Gotta love this guy. I’m gonna miss him.
http://www.zazzle.com/talkingpoints NORBIT Jr.

MSNBC is in total freefall!

It used to be my second channel of choice (guess which is 1st?), but I find myself going to CNN 90% of the time as the #2 news source.
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

Since MSNBC is now Comcast the cable company, I would imagine that the news will be here between 1 and 5 on Thursday. Maybe….
Harry Flashman

Norbit said:

“It used to be my second channel of choice….”

Headline News is my second choice because I like to watch Robin Meade. Can’t seem to remember a thing she says, though.

I wonder why?
http://www.zazzle.com/talkingpoints NORBIT Jr.

Harry Flashman said:
Norbit said: “It used to be my second channel of choice….” Headline News is my second choice because I like to watch Robin Meade. Can’t seem to remember a thing she says, though. I wonder why?

Harry,
You have to turn the sound up! – or not. lol

She looks like a porcelain doll that came to life.
tatboy

MSNBC the place for pedophiles. Just sayin’.
turk281

The weekend is when they scour the US looking for birthers and mental patients to present for the rest of the week as news.

The weekend is also when Chris Matthews sits in a tree outside of Michelle Bachmann’s house.
Penguin60

turk281 said:
The weekend is also when Chris Matthews sits in a tree outside of Michelle Bachmann’s house.

George McFly?
writer

MSNBC would have to interrupt their coverage of what Fox News is doing.
Nacho

Now MSNBC are going after Fox viewers.
Color Me Badd

I love this article, MSNBC is a complete joke and should not be expected to be taken seriously by anyone as long as they show prison porn and Chris Hansen all weekend long.

The funny thing is the reason they do it is because it gets higher ratings hahaahaha.
dhg

Comcast are you listening?Your new news channel is acting the fool,again,and if you really want it to be a serious contender you need to act now.

This is stupid,there is no other way to put it.I find it hard to believe the millionth airing of Pedophiles R Us did better than actual news.

This ranks right up there with prison docs on Xmas.
Color Me Badd

dhg said:
Comcast are you listening?Your new news channel is acting the fool,again,and if you really want it to be a serious contender you need to act now.

This is stupid,there is no other way to put it.I find it hard to believe the millionth airing of Pedophiles R Us did better than actual news.

This ranks right up there with prison docs on Xmas.

Totally!
Probably NOT wrong

turk281 said:
The weekend is when they scour the US looking for birthers and mental patients to present for the rest of the week as news. The weekend is also when Chris Matthews sits in a tree outside of Michelle Bachmann’s house.

Good Turk! Very good!
Scott_in_MI

Regular news viewrs don’t trust MSNBC. When the topic is serious, viewers always turn to FOX or CNN. Look how bad MSNBC gets its ass kicked during election nights or crisis nights.
tatboy

Nacho said:
Now MSNBC are going after Fox viewers.

That… was… weak…
Arkansas Steve

COMCAST, you’ve got your work cut out for you.
Gasket

Pathetic. MSNBC needs to get in the big leagues. It’s weird, they have resources from NBC. No excuse.
greg454

I can’t believe I’m praising MSNBC, but for once they did something right. It’s BOOOOORING when every channel covers the same story, specially live coverage which consists of people making things up and repeating themselves.

So good for MSNBC, when I watch the news I expect to see DIFFERENT stories, not the same boring topic 24/7.

MI CASA NO ES SU CASA: WHY ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS WRONG.
http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/2011/01/mi-casa-no-es-su-casa-why-libertarians.html