Not News? Fox Carried The Most Health Care And Ft. Hood Weekend Coverage
As we noticed last night, much of cable news was curiously occupied with taped programming yesterday evening in the midst of giant weekend news. Both the House passage of a health care bill and a live Fort Hood press conference occurred Saturday night, but CNN and MSNBC were locked in with pre-taped shows and thus missed a few big moments.
Fox News, on the other hand — the “not a news network” news network — was live the majority of the day, with the exception of the 1-3 pmET business shows and the 8-10 pmET Huckabee/Beck block, breaking for coverage in the afternoon of President Obama’s speech and the live Fort Hood press conference during the 8 o’clock hour (before cutting back to Huckabee). CNN’s simultaneous Fort Hood special also aired during the 8 pmET slot, inconveniently eclipsing the live news on the matter.
When it came time for Nancy Pelosi to give her floor speech during yesterday’s debates, again only Fox was there, as also noted by TVNewser, while CNN went with taped programming and MSNBC cut in with only a soundless visual. To their credit, MSNBC did provide streaming coverage via an embeddable online player, with intermittent live coverage throughout the afternoon on television before ultimately airing the final vote as it happened.
Those die-hards obsessively tracking the progress of the bill were watching CSPAN, of course, but it is interesting to note how on point Fox News was throughout a hectic news day, especially so soon after their chops were questioned so extensively by the White House. It’s almost as if the passage of the health care bill in the House was more important to Fox News’ generally right-leaning viewers as the opposition than those who might’ve been expected to celebrate Pelosi’s speech and the bill as a historic achievement.
Whatever the case, where were CNN and MSNBC? It will be interesting to see how the weekend ratings play out, but if recent history is any indication, one bet is safer than the others.
