CNN goofed up its coverage of the health care ruling this morning, and issued several corrections through its Web site, Twitter account and e-mail. iMediaEthics just spotted these corrections.
Via e-mail, CNN Breaking News wrote June 28 at 10:09 AM EST: “The Supreme Court has struck down the individual mandate for health care – the legislation that requires all to have health insurance.” See the e-mail below.
See above CNN’s e-mail to subscribers providing wrong information. (Via Ashley Harrell)
Nine minutes later, CNN Breaking News corrected that e-mail and sent out an e-mail blast saying “Correction: The Supreme Court backs all parts of President Obama’s signature health care law, including the individual mandate that requires all to have health insurance.” See that correction below.
See above CNN’s e-mail to subscribers correcting its earlier wrong information. (Via Ashley Harrell)
CNN also tacked on a big “correction” banner to its website by 10:20 AM EST reading: “Correction: The Supreme Court backs all parts of President Obama’s signature health care law.” See below:
CNN posted a big correction on its website. (Credit: CNN, screenshot)
And, CNN Breaking News tweeted at 10:21 AM EST “Correction: The Supreme Court backs all parts of President Obama’s health care law. http://on.cnn.com/LvVRcK”
Also, an earlier tweet from CNN Breaking News at 9:46 AM EST also reads: “Correction: CNN does not have details on when President Obama will make health care comments.” See below, on CNN’s website:
CNN also tweeted corrections. See above. (Credit: CNN, screenshot)
Thanks to Ashley Harrell for letting us know and sending us the e-mails!
Update: 6/28/2012 11:03 AM EST: Looks like CNN has taken the correction notice off its homepage. See a screenshot above.
Related: CNN used multi-platform corrections by sending them through e-mail, Twitter and on its website. In comparison, see our report from yesterday on McClatchy’s corrections of reporting on Julian Assange. McClatchy didn’t send its corrections through wire services or original newspapers, therefore burying corrections. See the McClatchy-Julian Assange report here.
UPDATE: 6/28/2012 4:25 PM EST: CNN appears to have covered up its error in its live blog. Tweeter Pessimism sent us link to this forum which shows two screenshots of CNN’s live blog from today’s decision. In the first, CNN wrongly reports that the provision was “struck down,” and in the second, it says it was “upheld.” There is no disclosure currently on the live blog to show this error was covered up. We have written to CNN to ask for confirmation and explanation and will update with any response.
UPDATE: 4/29/2012 4:29 PM EST: We received this statement from CNN’s Matt Dornic:
“In his opinion, Justice Roberts initially said that the individual mandate was not a valid exercise of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause. CNN reported that fact, but then wrongly reported that therefore the court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional. However, that was not the whole of the Court’s ruling. CNN regrets that it didn’t wait to report out the full and complete opinion regarding the mandate. We made a correction within a few minutes and apologize for the error.”
UPDATE: 4/29/2012 5:42 PM EST: See below the before-and-after images, via this forum. Also, CNN’s Dornic said he will look to see if the images are legit.
Compare the above and below screenshots from this forum purporting to show an undisclosed text change by CNN. Above shows an error in CNN’s live blog. Below, see the error magically fixed with no disclosure to readers, as the timestamp is the same. (Credit: Something Awful, screenshots, highlight added)