Month: June 2013

When these major news stories are breaking, there’s always a significant difference between what’s being shared via social media and what major news outlets are covering. That difference becomes more pronounced and more pathetic with each passing day.

Good journalism takes time that social media, which advances at a breathtaking pace, rarely affords. Good journalists need to verify information before they can report it. They need this time because, in the best of all worlds, we’re supposed to trust that they are offering us accurate, unbiased information. But even after they’ve applied the necessary rigor to their profession, journalists from major news outlets still seem like they can’t keep up — or, perhaps, it’s that they won’t keep up.

On Tuesday, June 25, Sen. Wendy Davis stood and fought for reproductive freedom in her state and the networks were largely silent. MSNBC offered some coverage earlier in the evening, but during the last few hours, the news networks, the 24-hour news networks created for this very purpose, were silent. They reported inaccurate information when they bothered to report at all. The next morning, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo referred to the efforts of Davis and Texas men and women who held vigil with her as “odd politics at work,” and before that suggested, “Why not spend the time trying to compromise and figure out the bill in the first place?” as if reproductive freedom is simply a matter of compromise. He was dismissive and negligent, a frustrating combination of incompetence.