Comparing news coverage of breaking stories across CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News

Rating the News Sites

Following in a long line of sensational celebrity trials to captivate the collective attention of America, the prosecution of Dr. Conrad Murray for his negligence in the death of pop star Michael Jackson has captured the country's notice in recent months. Accordingly, the nation's major news outlets, including CNN.com, FOXNEWS.com and MSNBC.com, have all chosen to dedicate a large portion of their daily reporting to the dramatic Murray trial. By closely examining the coverage of these three news providers, in terms of presentational style, journalistic integrity and the presence of bias, it is possible to construct a rigorous review of the methodology employed by the country's largest news and media outlets. Due to the overriding ideological differences espoused by the respective management of the CNN, FOX News and MSNBC news corporations, the reporting and coverage they provide on a seemingly objective issue like the Murray trial is readily skewed and distorted to further an organizational philosophy. The conservative-minded FOX News may shift the focus to the role of regulation within the healthcare industry to appeal to the interests of their audience, while the liberal-leaning MSNBC might choose to approach the story from the celebrity scandal angle in an effort to court younger readers. By studying each of these news outlets and their coverage of the Conrad Murray trial, I intend to determine which websites tend to exhibit prejudicial or partial treatment of the subject matter at hand.

A review of the Conrad Murray trial information found on the FOXNEWS.com website provides readers to a topical page containing a cluster of hard news stories, opinionated commentary and interactive user-generated content. With the highly anticipated verdict in the case having recently been rendered to be guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the headline article of FOXNEWS.com's coverage is titled "What Will Michael Jackson's Family Do Now That the Trial is Over?" (Piazza, 2011) and the text is accompanied by a splashy photograph of the surviving Jackson family. This human interest feature, covering the relief of Jackson's children and parents, takes up nearly half of the page while more factually-based news stories are relegated to the fringes. In fact, readers who visit the Fox News website in search of an objective depiction of the Conrad Murray trial are directed to the Wikipedia entry on the subject, in what can only be considered a troubling signal as to the diminished scope of traditional journalism. It is also worth mentioning that the notoriously divisive FOX News has allotted a portion of its page space to a story entitled "Jackson Estate Calls on MSNBC to Cancel Scheduled Airing of Dr. Conrad Murray Documentary" (http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/11/09/jackson-estate-calls-on-msnbc-to-cancel-scheduled-airing-dr-conrad-murray/), which covers the recent flap between the Jackson family and MSNBC, one of FOX News' chief competitors. When one considers that FOXNEWS.com routinely utilizes the unreliable tabloid site TMZ.com, which is owned by News Corp mogul Rupert Murdoch along with Fox News itself, as a secondary source during coverage of the Murray trial, it is apparent that their concern is not the production of legitimate journalism but rather the courtship of higher ratings at all costs.

Upon searching MSNBC.com for coverage of the Conrad Murray trial, the most noticeable factor was the decided lack of substantive material. Perhaps this is based on MSNBC's prominence as television outlet, but the website contained a minimal amount of content which was basic in nature and bare in presentation. The most returned destination found during searches of MSNBC.com was the site's "Factbox: Charges, Outcomes for Conrad Murray in Jackson trial" feature which provides readers with a barebones rundown of the case's timeline and major points of interest. Unfortunately, this relatively simple piece of reporting is not one of MSNBC's own making, but rather is culled from the Reuters news wire, as is the generic and barely legible photograph of the trial's Jury Instructions which is attached to the story. By actively searching the archives of MSNBC.com for related content, a dogged reader can eventually access pieces of well-researched and competently written hard news articles. The piece "Closing Arguments End in Conrad Murray Trial" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45158205#.TsB4UIIZZ5g) was produced by the network's Bay Area affiliates Jonathan Lloyd and John Cadiz Klemack and stands as an example of the quality work which one would hope to find more of on MSNBC.com's national website in the future. The uninspired and unimaginative approach to MSNBC.com's coverage of a court case which has become a lightning rod for Americans from coast to coast is actually startling, and this apparent oversight can only be justified if the network has dedicated the majority of its resources to its television coverage in lieu of expanding its web presence.