National TV coverage of roll call draws president’s ire

NEW YORK — The opening of the Republican National Convention on Monday offered quick proof that how it is covered by the news media will be an ongoing sore spot.

President Donald Trump claimed spotty coverage of the roll call vote that renominated him as the Republican candidate for president, and some television networks abandoned Trump’s informal, 54-minute acceptance speech for aggressive fact-checking.

It was a split-screen moment for news networks, which dipped in and out of the roll call as they also covered the testimony of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy before the House Oversight Committee.

Trump specifically mentioned CNN and MSNBC, although he also said that Fox News Channel had announcers talking over the vote.

Listening to the president “underscores the challenge for us in the news business,” said CNN’s John King.

“This is a sad thing to say, but a lot of what you have heard from the president of the United States is wrong, misleading or outright lies,” King said.

He corrected Trump’s statements calling voting by mail into question, as did CBS News’ Major

Garrett when that network stopped showing the president. Potential problems outlined by Trump are “highly, highly unlikely” to happen, Garrett said.

MSNBC and Fox News both aired Trump’s address in full. The tone of their chyrons, the term for headlines running on the screen, were markedly different.

At times, MSNBC’s screen read, “Without evidence, Pres. Trump claims he will only lose the election if it is rigged” and “Pres.

Trump accuses Dems of trying to steal election without evidence.”

On Fox, messages read, “Trump: Democrats want to send out ballots to people who didn’t ask for them” and “President Trump: I think we have record enthusiasm.”

Presumably because of COVID-19 restrictions, television coverage of Trump’s speech was largely limited to a single-camera shot of the president speaking, with few images of the audience.