CNN Called Out for Reporting Democrats Chances ‘Bleak’ While Other Analysts Project Victories: It’s Like They’re on an ‘Alternate Planet’
If you followed CNN’s election coverage on Tuesday night, your perspective on the Georgia runoffs is very different than that of observers who tracked other outlets.
The network is coming under fire on Twitter for having a much more grim prognosis than others for Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. While some have gone so far as to already declare Warnock a winner (no network has yet made that projection as of press time), and other forecasts show Ossoff as a near-lock, CNN has portrayed the contests to be much more of a coin flip.
Part of the difficulty for CNN was due to a reporting error. The network reported a local official in the Democratic stronghold of DeKalb county stating there were 117,000 votes outstanding prior to 11 p.m. ET when, in actuality, there were 171,000. That difference would have made matters much more difficult for the Democrats, and given Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) a much better chance.
“It’s getting bleak if you’re a Democrat,” top CNN election analyst John King said at 10:54 ET.
CNN quickly corrected the error — with leading Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling telling the network that, indeed, 171,000 DeKalb votes were still in play. But even after those numbers were clarified, King, anchor Wolf Blitzer, and others on CNN continued to portray the races as, more or less, 50-50 contests.
King expressed shock after a large number of the outstanding votes came in, and showed Warnock pulling ahead and Ossoff dramatically narrowing his deficit.
“In a word, wow,” King said.
Yet those following any other outlet — from CNN’s cable news rivals MSNBC and Fox News, to election gurus like FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver and The New York Times’ Nate Cohn — were not even remotely shocked by the DeKalb county numbers. All other observers, by 11 p.m. ET, believed the Democrats were all but guaranteed to prevail.
The network was called out by many on Twitter for providing misleading coverage:
At 11 pm, a family member watching CNN texted me asking if there was “any chance for Democrats to turn it around.” You have to wonder if the networks are doing viewers a disservice by relying so heavily on reported votes, without context about what’s outstanding.
— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) January 6, 2021
This absolutely blows me away. My dad is watching CNN and they are still presenting it as “The Dems gotta catch up!” Is it just that the CNN audience doesn’t know about, like, Twitter? What is the point of not giving your audience the best, most up-to-date account possible? https://t.co/3OixquRtem
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) January 6, 2021
All meteorologists: Based on every single piece of data it will rain tomorrow.
John King: Will it rain? Maybe, maybe not. Will it be sunny? Maybe, maybe not. We have to look at all the weather systems and be systematic. But there will be weather, we can say that systematically.
— Steven Zeitchik (@zeitchikWaPo) January 6, 2021
Plenty of votes to go. CNN wrong
— Laura Packard (@lpackard) January 6, 2021
It sounds like watching CNN is a really bad way to get a grasp on what’s happening here https://t.co/JEjjjR8wCe
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) January 6, 2021
CNN is like an alternate planet, they’re making it seem so bleak for the Dems and like every political analyst I follow on twitter is pretty sure it’s a done deal in their favor
— claire de lune (@ClaireMPLS) January 6, 2021
CNN has been terrible tonight. Turn on MSNBC . CNN’s numbers are all messed up
— Dan Leach (@DanLeach971) January 6, 2021
CNN been trash.
— Lane Wood (@lanewood) January 6, 2021
It’s almost like CNN wants to keep making this seem like a toss up, because maybe they want us to keep watching their channel and stuff.
— Barry Rothbart (@barryrothbart) January 6, 2021
It’s news entertainment it’s not about reporting responsibly
CNN is pro wrestling https://t.co/QAszhbYAaE— Masked Scheduler (@maskedscheduler) January 6, 2021
John King made it worse when he just said “you have to see if you can find some votes” yada yada. Like they’re scrounging in the couch for change or something.
— Steve Dorsey (@dorsey) January 6, 2021
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