Oliver Darcy of CNN's Media Unit attempted to tattle on Fox News Channel in their so-called "Reliable Sources" newsletter on Tuesday night. His headline was "Guess which network didn't carry the 1/6 proceedings." Oh horrors, "over on Fox, the channel whose top host has mocked the very fact there was an insurrection on January 6, coverage was nowhere to be found."
CNN complains whenever Fox doesn’t do everything the way CNN would.
A network asks what will their viewers watch? What will their viewers tune out? Fox News executives know that a very stilted Democrat committee is not their audience's cup of tea. That committee is all Democrats, plus Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. In other words, it's unanimously out to get Trump. There's no balance from a pro-Trump Republican inside this committee. Surely, CNN and MSNBC will suffice.
Live coverage isn't the whole picture. Your coverage doesn’t have to be live to be covering the committee proceedings. But Darcy slammed Fox as too "careful" in covering it.
Then, Darcy was back in Thursday night's newsletter complaining about Fox. This time, it was covering a Merrick Garland hearing too much. And CNN couldn't be blamed for skipping it.
This time, the headline was "Garland hearing shows the power of Fox." He complained "The right-wing network took large portions of Garland's testimony before the House and much of it featured Republicans grilling the AG on the topic. Frankly, it was like a Fox News fanfic." It was fictional?
Darcy carped "this information environment is stopping elected leaders from focusing on far more serious issues..."
But how did CNN do on this hearing? On Thursday, a search of CNN transcripts found no live coverage of the Garland hearing. Most mentions of Merrick Garland that day were – shocker – about Steve Bannon resisting the 1/6 Committee. Garland’s letter talking up investigating “threats” from parents speaking freely at school board meetings was not a major focus.
At 11:30 am, CNN’s Jessica Schneider mentioned the Republican concerns in passing:
SCHNEIDER: And interestingly so far Republicans have not really been pressing the attorney general on this possible Steve Bannon prosecution. Instead, Kate, they've been slamming Garland for a memo he sent out October 4th that directs the FBI and local prosecutors to work with school boards to maybe thwart some of those growing threats that educators have faced when it comes to COVID protocols. Even teaching the issues of race.
Schneider also covered the Garland hearing in the 5 pm hour with Jake Tapper, including both Republican and Democrat concerns. That’s not hard to do, Darcy!
SCHNEIDER: This memo from the Attorney General directs the FBI and federal prosecutors to meet with local school boards to discuss strategies to stop threats that some educators have faced when it comes to COVID protocols like mask mandates and the teaching of racial issues in class. Republicans are portraying the directive as an order to arrest parents who criticize school boards, a false narrative Garland repeatedly pushed back against.
She also explained Democrats were upset DOJ was defending the president against his rape accuser E. Jean Carroll, and that Republican Ken Buck wants a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden's shady painting sales. This is how a news network can do it, without offering hours of live coverage. It's too bad Darcy thinks that a network that doesn't share CNN's "news judgment" of Trump-trashing and Biden-bubblewrapping is somehow not journalism.
