MSNBC Still Had Breaking News Banner For BuzzFeed Report 21 Hours Later

Cable news went all out on Friday in its coverage of a BuzzFeed News report claiming President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to commit perjury before Congress — a potentially impeachable offense.

Fox News was very cautious on the story, it should be noted. CNN was not, granting it wall-to-wall coverage.

MSNBC outdid both its cable news rivals, however. The network had a bright red “BREAKING NEWS” banner on the story all the way into Friday evening — more than 21 hours after it released on Thursday night.

Behold above, the banner on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, in the 7 p.m. hour Friday night.

This could all end up being a very embarrassing ordeal for the media. Around 8 p.m. Friday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s office issued a rare statement disputing the BuzzFeed News report.

The story has yet to be fully debunked, and BuzzFeed is standing by it. But the statement from Mueller — asserting that the news outlet’s “description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate” — raises serious red flags.

From the White House lawn on Saturday, Trump chastised the media for its coverage of the report.

“The BuzzFeed piece, and maybe equally as bad, the coverage of the BuzzFeed phony story… was a disgrace,” he said. “The coverage by the mainstream media was disgraceful. And I think it’s going to take a long time for the mainstream media to recover its credibility.”

The president is hardly in a position to scold the media over factual inaccuracies, but his broader point is taken: cable news should be far more cautious before granting wall-to-wall coverage to single reports alleging grandiose crimes with massive consequences.