‘There Is a Cost as a News Organization to Knowingly Broadcast Untrue Things’
Most cable news networks decline to air Donald Trump's speech live
Hours after he appeared in a courtroom in Miami to be the first former US president in history arraigned on federal charges, Donald Trump was back at his golf resort in New Jersey.
While Trump hosted a political fundraiser there for his current — third — run for the White House, prior to that gathering he gave public remarks.
Those remarks were largely filled with the former president's grievance-filled vitriol which have become his stock-in-trade.
He delivered a speech full of attacks and threats targeting President Biden, Justice Department prosecutors and his other enemies. A Fox News chyron echoed Trump's unfounded claims, calling Biden, who was speaking at a Juneteenth celebration Tuesday night at the White House, a “wannabe dictator.”
While right-wing Fox News was happy to parrot Trump's every word, the other two major US cable news networks made a very different decision: not to air Trump's speech live.
It was a momentous decision, especially for CNN which was roundly skewered for giving Trump an hour of uninterrupted airtime last month during a “town hall” forum in which moderator Kaitlan Collins struggled to keep up fact-checking the former president for all the falsehoods he spoke there.
“We’re not carrying his remarks live because frankly, he says a lot of things that are not true and sometimes potentially dangerous,” CNN host Jake Tapper told his audience on-camera. “But we do have some, a small portion, so you can get a sense of his state of mind and how he might be framing his defense.
“… We’re going to start — of course, I just want to note he begins this clip we’re about to show you by making unfounded claims about the charges against him, untrue and unfounded claims about the charges against him, and the people he thinks are behind it. So I just want to preface it by saying that,” Tapper added.
At one point, Tapper also ordered those operating the CNN control room to stop a feed of Trump appearing at a Cuban restaurant.
“Folks in the control room, I don’t need so see any more of that. He’s trying to turn it into a spectacle and into a campaign ad,” Tapper said. “That is enough of that. We’ve seen it already. Let’s go over, again, the 37 charges that Donald Trump is facing right now.”
The charges in question Tuesday stem from Trump's handling of boxes of classified and sensitive federal documents he took with him to his home in Florida after he left the White House in January 2021.
Over on MSNBC, host Rachel Maddow explained that network's thinking.
“We are prepared for his pre-fund-raiser remarks tonight to again, essentially, be a Trump campaign speech. Because of that, we do not intend to carry these remarks live. As we have said before in these circumstances, there is a cost to us as a news organization to knowingly broadcast untrue things,” Maddow told viewers. “We are here to bring you the news. It hurts our ability to do that if we live broadcast what we fully expect in advance to be a litany of lies and false accusations, no matter who says them.
“And I do not say this with any glee. I hope it is clear that this is not a glib decision. We take our responsibilities seriously. We revisit decisions like this all the time. We make the best call that we can in real time, every time,” she added. “But tonight, our call is this: We will monitor that speech by the newly indicted former president. We will not carry his remarks live. If he says anything newsworthy, we promise we will turn that right around and bring it back to you.”
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