Healthcare ruling: CNN and Fox News report wrong decision

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/us-news-blog/2012/jun/28/healthcare-ruling-cnn-wrong-decision

Version 2 of 3.

It was one of the biggest news days of the year so far, and within minutes of the supreme court ruling, "CNN" was trending on social media networks worldwide.

Unfortunately for the news channel, it proved to be the wrong kind of trending – CNN was being lambasted for reporting precisely the opposite of what had actually happened.

"Individual mandate struck down," the breaking news banner on CNN's US domestic news network proclaimed. "Supreme court finds measure unconstitutional."

In fact, the supreme court had actually upheld President Obama's healthcare law. The confusion arose because it declared the individual mandate – which obliges most Americans to secure health insurance – as unconstitutional in terms of what is know as the "commerce clause" but allowed it to stand as a tax.

CNN was not the only news organisation to get it wrong – Fox News also declared the individual mandate unconstitutional. But it seemed that Fox was let off lightly compared with its more middle-of-the road rival.

@salgentile CNN just careless; Fox engaging in wishful thinking.

— Gerard Mulligan (@GerardMulligan1) June 28, 2012

With Wolf Blitzer at the helm for CNN's coverage, the network attributed the "unconstitutional" report to its in-court producer.

In the era of digital publishing, this was a cross platform blunder: CNN republished the error on its website, its Twitter feed and its iPhone app.

@ConanOBrien @HuffingtonPost EPIC FAIL=CNN, wanted to be first and got it WRONG. Fox News even got it right! twitter.com/tombetti/statu…

— Tom Betti (@tombetti) June 28, 2012

It was 13 long minutes between wrong tweet...

Supreme Court strikes down individual mandate portion of health care law. on.cnn.com/LvVRcK

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 28, 2012

... and correction

Correction: The Supreme Court backs all parts of President Obama's health care law. on.cnn.com/LvVRcK

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 28, 2012

In that time, CNN's followers on Twitter berated the network. "Who runs your twitter feed? Some unpaid intern who has an agenda?" pondered @JayRockerz.

In a statement, CNN apologised for the error. "In his opinion, chief Justice Roberts initially said that the individual mandate was not a valid exercise of congressional power under the commerce clause," the statement said. "CNN reported that fact, but then wrongly reported that therefore the court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional. However, that was not the whole of the court's ruling.

"CNN regrets that it didn't wait to report out the full and complete opinion regarding the mandate. We made a correction within a few minutes and apologize for the error."

As CNN took the punches, Fox's error was largely ignored – a fact not lost on Reuters columnist Felix Salmon.

What's interesting to me is less that Fox News got it wrong, and more that no one seems to care about that. twitter.com/jasonkeath/sta…

— felix salmon (@felixsalmon) June 28, 2012

"Individualmandategate" caps a rough period for CNN. On Wednesday it emerged that the channel's second quarter ratings had plummeted to their lowest level since 1991, with prime time viewers down more than a third compared to 2011.

However both CNN and Fox can take some comfort in knowing that reporting the wrong verdict in a high profile case is not unprecedented: bikini website Mail Online initially reported that Amanda Knox's appeal against her murder conviction in Italy had been rejected.

As the dash to be first continues in the digital age, Fox and CNN won't be the last to be never wrong for long.