CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News aired virtually no live coverage of Timothy Geithner's testimony before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on regulatory reform in the financial industry. By contrast, CNN and MSNBC each aired live more than an hour, and Fox News approximately 14 minutes, of Geithner and Ben Bernanke's testimony at a committee hearing on AIG two days earlier.
After devoting extensive coverage to Geithner hearing on AIG, cable networks all but ignore live testimony on Treasury powers
Written by Andrew Walzer, Lily Yan, Nathan Tabak & Hannah Dreier
Published
On March 26, the major cable news networks -- CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News -- all but ignored Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's testimony before a House Financial Services Committee hearing, "Addressing the Need for Comprehensive Regulatory Reform," airing virtually none of the hearing live. In fact, two of the three networks -- MSNBC and Fox News -- aired no live coverage of the March 26 hearing whatsoever, though MSNBC played a recorded clip from the hearing during a related report. CNN aired about three minutes of that hearing live. Their failure to devote live coverage to Geithner's testimony regarding regulatory reform stood in stark contrast to the more than an hour of live coverage CNN and MSNBC each devoted to Geithner's and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony at the House Financial Services Committee hearing two days earlier, "Oversight of the Federal Government's Intervention at American International Group." Fox News aired approximately 14 minutes of the March 24 hearing live.
The comparison was based on network coverage from the first 90 minutes of each hearing, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET. Only live coverage with audio was counted. Though both hearings continued past 11:30 a.m. ET, coverage past this point was not included in the comparison due to President Obama's March 26 town hall scheduled at that time.
MSNBC
March 24: 67 min.
March 26: None
Fox
March 24: 14 min.
March 26: None
CNN:
March 24: 70 min.
March 26: 3 min.
March 24 coverage
Live coverage start time (ET, rounded)
Network
Program
Length of coverage (rounded)
10:05:00 AM
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
1 min.
10:07:00 AM
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
26 min.
10:40:00 AM
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
2 min.
10:52:00 AM
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
38 min.
11:01:00 AM
FNC
Happening Now
7 min.
11:23:00 AM
FNC
Happening Now
7 min.
10:04:00 AM
CNN
CNN Newsroom
13 min.
10:20:00 AM
CNN
CNN Newsroom
20 min.
10:53:00 AM
CNN
CNN Newsroom
37 min.
March 26 coverage
Live coverage start time (ET, rounded)
Network
Program
Length of coverage (rounded)
10:32:00 AM
CNN
CNN Newsroom
3 min.