Join us
the kicker

Breaking News Breakdown

CNN was reporting this afternoon on the “death of” Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D, OH) up until it carried live, around 2:30, a press conference at...
August 20, 2008

Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter.

CNN was reporting this afternoon on the “death of” Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D, OH) up until it carried live, around 2:30, a press conference at a Cleveland hospital during which a spokesperson referred to Tubbs Jones being “in critical condition at present,” having suffered an aneurysm. Soon thereafter, before our very eyes, “death of” on CNN’s on-screen headline was switched to “health of” Tubbs Jones.

UPDATE: Fox News, too, was reporting soon after 2pm that Tubbs Jones had died (complete with on-screen headline “FOX CONFIRMS”).

Has America ever needed a media defender more than now? Help us by joining CJR today.

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.