“Nowhere was the difference between the cable news networks on starker display than in prime-time coverage on the night the last American combat brigade left Iraq following a war that started seven years and five months ago.

MSNBC devoted its entire prime-time footprint to the story, with Richard Engel riding with the troops in a specially equipped vehicle and host Rachel Maddow based in Baghdad. Keith Olbermann anchored the coverage from a New York studio.

Fox News Channel devoted just under 10 minutes to the story, much of it during Shepard Smith’s 7 p.m. newscast. The network spent 45 minutes discussing the potential construction of an Islamic cultural center near ground zero, while that story wasn’t mentioned on MSNBC at all. CNN, meanwhile, spent an hour on each story.

The news decisions led critics of Fox and MSNBC to suggest politics was at play in the coverage decision.

…Fox representatives had no immediate comment on the criticism.”

David Bauder - continue reading… AP 
High-res pic via prnewser saddest thing about this pic is that I had to flip to cspan2 to catch the end of Pres. Obama’s town hall meeting. so much analysis, months of it asking whether or not this policy or that policy (health care, energy plan, etc) has been ‘sold’ correctly and crap like this gets wall to wall coverage. I don’t want the media to sell any particular policy but a ton of the blame for America’s ignorance lies with them.

pic via prnewser

saddest thing about this pic is that I had to flip to cspan2 to catch the end of Pres. Obama’s town hall meeting.

so much analysis, months of it asking whether or not this policy or that policy (health care, energy plan, etc) has been ‘sold’ correctly and crap like this gets wall to wall coverage. I don’t want the media to sell any particular policy but a ton of the blame for America’s ignorance lies with them.

Fox News was the only major cable news network to not show the entirety of President Obama’s conversation with House Republicans at their annual retreat.

Yesterday on ABC’s This Week, Arianna Huffington challenged Fox News President Roger Ailes about this decision:

Arianna Huffington: …why did you go away, 20 minutes before the end?

AILES: Because we’re the most trusted name in news.

The discussion on the topic continued in the green room without Ailes.

via thinkprogress