The cable networks of CNN and MSNBC spent a good portion of Thursday obsessing over a ProPublica report that Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose friend Harlan Crow paying for his-great nephew's tuition while simultaneously downplaying—and in MSNBC's case, completely ignoring— reports that Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not recuse herself from a case involving the publishing company Random House despite it paying her $3.6 million.
A study of CNN and MSNBC coverage from 6 am to midnight on Thursday found the two networks had quite a disparity in coverage:
Thomas: 2 hours, 16 minutes and 54 seconds
Sotomayor: 1 minute, 42 seconds.
Simplified down, that is 80.5 seconds on Thomas for every one second spent on Sotomayor. The 102 seconds on Sotomayor were exclusively on CNN. MSNBC had zero on Sotomayor.
CNN spent over 19.6 times more air time on Thomas than Sotomayor. The exact numbers were 33 minutes and 24 seconds to 1 minute and 42 seconds.
A complete breakdown of CNN’s programming is below:
- CNN This Morning (6-9 AM): 380 seconds (6 minutes and 20 seconds):0
- CNN News Central (9-10 AM): 158 (2 minutes and 38 seconds):0
- CNN News Central (10-11 AM): 0:0
- CNN News Central (11 AM-12 PM): 0:0
- Inside Politics with John King (12-1 PM): 0:0
- CNN News Central (1-2 PM): 0:0
- CNN News Central (2-3 PM): 0:0
- CNN News Central (3-4PM): 241 (4 minutes and 1 second):0
- The Lead with Jake Tapper (4-6 PM): 0:0
- The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (6-7 PM): 198 (3 minutes and 18 seconds):0
- Erin Burnett OutFront (7-8 PM): 236 (3 minutes and 56 seconds):31
- Anderson Cooper 360 (8-9 PM): 0:0
- CNN Primetime (9-10 PM): 199 (3 minutes and 19 seconds):14
- CNN Tonight (10 PM-12 AM) 592 (9 minutes and 52 seconds):57
MSNBC meanwhile spent 1 hour, 43 minutes, and 30 seconds discussing Thomas and the only mentions of Sotomayor were hosts wondering what the GOP’s reaction would be if Thomas were Sotomayor -- failing to acknowledge there was any news on Sotomayor.
A complete breakdown of MSNBC’s programming is below:
- Morning Joe (6-10 AM): 605 (10 minutes and 5 seconds):0
- Ana Cabrera Reports (10-11 AM): 415 (6 minutes and 55 seconds):0
- Jose Diaz-Balart Reports (11 AM-12 PM): 0:0
- Andrea Mitchell Reports (12-1 PM): 152 (2 minutes and 32 seconds):0
- Chris Jansing Reports (1-3 PM): 271 (4 minutes and 31 seconds):0
- Katy Tur Reports (3-4 PM): 187 (3 minutes and 7 seconds):0
- Deadline: White House (4-6 PM): 1,406 (23 minutes and 26 seconds): 0
- The Beat with Ari Melber (6-7 PM): 197 (3 minutes and 17 seconds):0
- The ReidOut (7-8 PM): 585: (9 minutes and 45 seconds):0
- All In with Chris Hayes (8-9 PM): 503 (8 minutes and 23) seconds:0
- Alex Wagner Tonight (9-10 PM): 740 (12 minutes and 20 seconds):0
- The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (10-11 PM): 582 (9 minutes and 42 seconds):0
- The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle (11 PM-12 AM) 567 (9 minutes and 27 seconds):0
With that zero, the question whether MSNBC is deliberately covering up the Sotomayor news for the sake of an anti-Thomas, anti-conservative majority narrative or whether they are ignorant. Neither is a ringing endorsement for a news network.
While not every moment of the Thomas coverage was negative—for example, Abby Phillip interviewed Rep. Byron Donalds who defended Thomas and pointed out Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has had disclosure problems herself—but most accepted the premise that Thomas either did something gravely wrong, was Crow's puppet, or was at least too cavalier in his attitudes towards reporting. Despite Crow not having any business before the Court while Random House did, coverage of Sotomayor was mostly lumped into larger questions about “ethics reform” or the Court’s alleged problems as a whole. The networks also covered the latest reports surrounding Thomas’s wife Gini.
