MS NOW cuts away from Trump to fact-check him — then has to correct itself

BS BULLETIN:

MS NOW abandoned President Trump’s U.N. address roughly 20 minutes into the speech so Stephanie Ruhle could begin live fact-checking.
Ruhle challenged several Trump claims, declaring that his speech was “riddled with false claims.”
One of those fact-checks subsequently required an on-air correction.

MS NOW decided President Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations needed an interruption.

For fact-checking.

Then the fact-checkers needed some fact-checking.

The network carried Trump’s address Tuesday before anchor Stephanie Ruhle broke in approximately 20 minutes into his remarks.

“Time for some fact-checking,” Ruhle announced.

She began with Trump’s statement that his administration had settled eight wars around the world, then moved into claims Trump made about the economy and foreign investment in the United States.

Trump had said foreign entities had committed approximately $21 trillion in investments to the United States.

Ruhle challenged him.

“He said there are $21 trillion in commitments from foreign entities to the United States,” she said. “That’s factually incorrect.”

Ruhle said the White House’s own website listed $11.2 trillion.

But that comparison had a problem.

Ruhle later returned to the air with a correction, explaining that the $11.2 trillion figure she cited did not include investments announced during Trump’s current term.

“So I want to correct the record,” Ruhle said, according to subsequent coverage of the broadcast.

There were plenty of Trump claims available for scrutiny during the lengthy address.

PolitiFact separately examined his remarks on subjects ranging from the Iran war to artificial intelligence and found multiple statements it rated misleading or lacking important context.

But MS NOW’s decision was notable for another reason.

The network didn’t wait until Trump finished speaking.

It stopped carrying the president of the United States addressing the U.N. General Assembly and substituted its own analysis while the speech was still underway.

CNN went even further.

The network had access to the U.N. feed but chose not to carry Trump’s speech live at all, telling viewers it would instead show any “newsworthy moments” that emerged.

All of this happened amid an escalating confrontation between Trump and the same news organizations.

As The Daily BS reported, CNN, MS NOW and Politico are suing the Trump administration after being barred from White House access.

And the five major television networks subsequently banded together and stopped providing traditional White House television pool coverage after CNN was prevented from fulfilling its scheduled assignment.

The White House has since responded by launching and promoting its own video operation.

The restrictions don’t extend to the United Nations, however, where press credentials are handled independently.

So MS NOW was able to cover Trump there Tuesday.

At least for 20 minutes.