UPDATE, 12:53 p.m. Eastern: Early Friday afternoon, local news outlets (such as the Sacramento Bee) reported that an arrest had been made in Singh's murder and that law enforcement officials would be holding a press conference later in the day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since news broke on Wednesday that a manhunt was under way for a man who murdered a California police officer, MSNBC has completely ignored it while CNN banished it to Thursday morning's Early Start show before picking up seven mentions on Friday while the broadcast networks and Fox News Channel have given it substantial attention.
The story became even more significant on Thursday afternoon when it turned out the suspect is an illegal immigrant, which led to President Donald Trump bringing attention to the sad event via Twitter.
After news broke on Wednesday that Newman, California police officer Ronil Singh was shot and killed during a traffic stop late Christmas night, leading to a manhunt for the suspect whose name is still being withheld, ABC's World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News ran full reports on Wednesday evening, as did Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream.
On Thursday, the morning newscasts on ABC, CBS and FNC all covered the story, and CNN's Early Start show ran a couple of briefs at 4:50 a.m. and 5:56 a.m. Eastern, totaling a minute and 20 seconds.
For the rest of Thursday, several other shows on FNC also covered the story while CNN was slow to get to the story, not covering it again until Friday, which is in line with the liberal news network's history of paying little attention to stories about police officers being attacked on the job.
In the afternoon, it was revealed that the suspect was in the country illegally, a significant development which was reported forthrightly with full stories on Thursday evening's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and FNC's Special Report with Bret Baier with CBS evening leading the show with the murder. These shows also noted that Officer Singh was himself a legal immigrant from Fiji who had been a police officer for seven years, was very popular in the community, and had a wife and five-month-old son.
Even though President Trump tweeted in the afternoon about the involvement of an illegal immigrant, MSNBC has thus far continued to ignore the story, as of 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
As for CNN, news briefs aired during the 3:00 a.m. Eastern simulcast of CNN International's CNN Newsroom Live, three news briefs during Friday's Early Start, one brief mention in the 6:00 a.m. Eastern hour of New Day, a full report in New Day's 8:00 a.m. Eastern hour by correspondent Sara Sidner, and then another Sidner piece in the 10:00 a.m. Eastern hour of CNN Newsroom.
