Real-time fact-checking common across outlets that aired address
President Donald Trump threatened sanctions for broadcast and cable news outlets that declined to carry his primetime address live Thursday night, according to the Associated Press. The episode unfolded against a backdrop of deep tension between the media and a president working to exert control over it by whatever means he can, the wire service said.
Networks and their news operations, broadcast and cable alike, spent the hours leading up to Trump’s address debating how to cover it, the AP reported. The dilemma involved balancing delivering the news with handing over their airwaves to potential falsehoods about the 2020 elections.
In his speech, Trump excoriated networks that chose not to carry it live. “NBC and ABC fake news” avoided it because they “don’t like the topic,” he said, according to the AP. He also threatened them with consequences, using the presidential pulpit to suggest they should be sanctioned for their editorial decisions. “They and others in the media are part of a plot,” Trump said, offering no evidence for his assertion, the AP reported. The wire service noted there is also no evidence of fraud in the 2020 elections.
The coverage strategy that emerged — real-time fact-checking as much as possible even while the president was still speaking — represented a common editorial response across the outlets that did carry the address, the AP reported.