MSNBC Is Not More Apology-Prone Than Fox News Or CNN

Last week, Mediaite published a column, entitled “MSNBC’s Year of Apologies…Continues,” which purported to list examples of “MSNBC’s apologies” since an April 12 column on the same subject. The initial column called the network’s “Year of Apologies” a “fateful year” and a “troubling trend,” and the second claims they “have made far more of them than anyone else.”

A cursory review of the other cable networks, covering the most recent time period in question, indicates that Fox News and CNN made a greater number of apologies than MSNBC.

The two columns in question list eleven apologies by MSNBC and their hosts, dating back to May of 2011 (three of the apologies attributed to MSNBC in the headlines were actually not made by MSNBC. Two were made by NBC News, and one by a radio producer). For purposes of brevity, however, I’ve confined my check to the second column, which lists four such apologies since April of this year (as you’ll see, though, the shorter timeframe hardly matters).

This is also not intended to be a comprehensive list, but rather, a list just long enough to test the claims made in our earlier columns, and one consisting mainly of the ones I could remember off the top of my head.

Since April, CNN nearly eclipsed MSNBC’s total just with their music-related apologies. In July, CNN issued an apology for playing Pink‘s Stupid Girls while teasing a segment about Sarah Palin, while August saw them apologize for playing Billy Joel‘s Only The Good Die Young following a segment on the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin (but separated by a commercial break), and separately for falsely labeling the band Hatebreed a “White Power band.”

CNN reporter Susan Candiotti apologized in April for using the n-word while quoting a murder suspect’s Facebook page, and just a few weeks ago, Fareed Zakaria apologized (and served a suspension) over accusations of plagiarism. That’s five since April, one more than MSNBC. Troubling trend?

If so, then cable news writ large is hopelessly lost. Fox News eclipsed the since-April totals of MSNBC and CNN combined. In April, Monica Crowley apologized to Sandra Fluke for tweeting “to a man?” in response to news of Fluke’s engagement (1), and Fox and Friends‘ Steve Doocy was forced to issue a “clarification” when he misquoted President Obama (2).

In May, The Five host Eric Bolling apologized for accusing President Obama of having sold drugs (3), Bret Baier issued a correction to a false report of plagiarism against Elizabeth Warren (4), and Fox executive Bill Shine admonished a Fox and Friends producer over a “clips package” that resembled an anti-Obama attack ad (5).

In June, Megyn Kelly apologized for falsely reporting that the Environmental Protection Agency was using unmanned “spy drones” to spy on “cattle ranchers.” (6)

In July, Bill O’Reilly apologized for incorrectly predicting the results of the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (7), while The Five‘s Bob Beckel apologized for calling Mitt Romney a “punk.” (8)

Beckel also apologized, in August, for dropping yet another f-bomb on the air (9). Just last week, Fox and Friends had to issue a correction because they misreported some unemployment figures (10).

That’s just since April. This April, 2012.

There’s one more that I saved for last, because while both CNN and Fox News made the same mistake, only CNN apologized for it. In June, both Fox and CNN reported that the Supreme Court had struck down the individual mandate component of the Affordable Care Act. On that fateful day, MSNBC got it right (and so did we).

The best way to demonstrate your commitment to fairness and accuracy is to get it right the first time, and failing that, apologize and get it right the second time. A blunt tally of apologies is a poor measure of that commitment, in my view, but that’s another issue. For whatever it’s worth, MSNBC is no more prone to apologies than any other cable network, and based on the evidence presented, is actually less so.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.