On Friday, what was billed as a press conference from Trump Tower degenerated into incoherent and misleading speech from former President Donald J. Trump, causing several major networks to pull him from their broadcasts.
It was the latest example of television journalists having to balance the newsworthiness of a major political event – in this case the conviction of a former president – against the difficulty of covering a candidate who consistently makes false statements.
Trump's remarks were carried live by cable news networks and NBC, which interrupted its regular daytime programming to cover his appearance. MSNBC, CNN and Fox News all aired camera footage showing an empty podium minutes before Trump was to begin his speech.
Trump began speaking in his usual loquacious and deceptive manner, launching into a string of false statements about the Manhattan trial, attacking witnesses, calling the judge “the devil” and falsely accusing President Biden of interfering with the prosecution.
NBC aired Trump's remarks for 20 minutes before host Lester Holt interrupted. “We were told this was going to be a press conference,” Holt told viewers, before bringing in two legal analysts to analyze and fact-check the remarks. “There is no evidence that Biden was behind this,” Holt said.
ABC and CBS did not interrupt their regular programming.
On MSNBC, where hosts at times refused to broadcast Trump live, the network cut off the former president's appearance after about 20 minutes, after which a graphic appeared on the screen saying, “Trump's post-verdict comments are full of lies and attacks.”
CNN aired Trump's appearance for 18 minutes before switching to a fact-checking segment. Several networks told viewers they would return to Trump's appearance once he began speaking to reporters, but he did not answer reporters' questions. The New York Times livestreamed Trump's appearance on its website for about six minutes before cutting off coverage and continuing to provide written updates on its blog.
Fox News aired Trump's appearance in its entirety.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump infuriated television reporters by alluding to a “big announcement” related to an earlier lie about Barack Obama's birthplace. Television networks carried his remarks live, but the appearance quickly turned into a campaign rally.
“We've been fooled again by the Trump campaign,” CNN's John King said at the time.