The progressive news network MSNBC has been reportedly trying to deceive its viewers about their presence at the recent coverage of the Republican National Convention this week. Many major news outlets, such as CNN and Fox News, attended the four-day event to provide coverage for their respective network. MSNBC, however, decided to provide a different kind of coverage from the comfort of their home studio, except that’s not what the network wanted viewers to believe.
During the coverage of the major GOP event, MSNBC’s main hosts Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, along with other hosts, appeared to be seated at a higher vantage point overlooking the RNC at the Milwaukee stadium. In reality, they were positioned in front of large LED screens displaying what seemed to be a live stream of the RNC.
The talking heads covered all four days of the event, all in the comfort of the major network’s home studio, which is located at MSNBC’s headquarters in Manhattan. The reports of the network’s hoax came from the New York Times following the RNC. The deceptive act from MSNBC sparked a good amount of backlash from other news networks and figures in the industry. Veteran journalist and former CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno scorned the outlet for deceiving their audiences. The former CNN host bashed the outlet by stating that if news organizations such as MSNBC aren’t honest about where “they are clearly”, then how can their audience have faith and “confidence” in what content the network is reporting on? Sesno stated that the incident represented something “profoundly important”.
During the entirety of the RNC, MSNBC only sent reporters Katy Tur and Stephanie Ruhle to report live from the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, with Tur’s Katy Tur reports segment at 2 p.m. and Ruhle’s 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle at 11 p.m. CST.
