CNN gave over eight times more coverage to Beyonce lip synching the
national anthem than it did to President Obama's falsehood on the
sequester last Friday.
After the President claimed in last Friday's presser that Capitol Hill
janitors and police would receive a pay cut because of the sequester,
CNN correspondent Dana Bash fact-checked it and found it not to be the
case. Her report aired twice that day and two more times over last
weekend. She covered the matter for 45 seconds in each report, so CNN's
coverage totaled three minutes.
In
contrast, CNN spent over 26 minutes investigating Beyonce's lip sync of
the national anthem at President Obama's Inauguration. And after she
sang the anthem live at a press conference on January 31, CNN spent two
additional minutes talking about that performance and her anticipated
Super Bowl appearance.
CNN even made it "breaking news" on The Situation Room,
January 23: "We've got some breaking news coming in on Beyonce and the
lip sync scandal that's being called. Definitive information now being
learned by Jim Acosta," touted host Wolf Blitzer.
On January 22 and 23, CNN talked about the lip sync and even brought on
"experts" to discuss it. "Was she lip syncing?" host Erin Burnett asked
the January 22 edition of OutFront. "Did she or didn't she? Did Beyonce fake it at the inauguration?" fill-in anchor Christine Romans asked on next morning's Early Start.
Meanwhile, CNN only mentioned a Presidential falsehood four times over
the weekend. CNN's Jim Acosta did bring up Obama's falsity in Monday's
White House press briefing, but that still didn't make it on CNN that
day. Here was his question to White House press secretary Jay Carney:
"Earlier this morning, Secretary Napolitano said that lines at some of the biggest airports over the weekend were 150 to 200 percent longer. We're asking Homeland Security for some kind of metrics to back that up. But given the fact that there was sort of this back-and-forth over teacher layoffs with Secretary Duncan, and even the President talked about janitors that might be impacted at the Capitol – that may not be the case – what is the administration doing to make sure that these numbers are not hyped? Because might that undercut your message?"
-- Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center