While MSNBC refused to carry the White House press conference live yesterday, CNN took a slightly different approach: When Sarah Huckabee Sanders spun White House talking points on the climate change report, CNN presented their own fact-check.
While it was only a few seconds, it was useful.
REPORTER: The president when asked about the economic forecast essentially said he didn't believe it. The takeaway from many people is that the president doesn't feel necessarily a responsibility to lead either in this country or in the world on climate change and preventing the calamity that your administration forecasts. Do you agree with that view? And if not, why not?
SANDERS: The president is certainly leading on what matters most in this process and that's on having clean air and clean water. The United States continues to be a leader on that front. even Obama's undersecretary for science didn't believe the radical conclusions of the report that was released and you have to look at the fact that this report is based on the most extreme model scenario, which contradicts long-established trends. Modelling the climate is an extremely complicated science that is never exact.
This is a practice that should be expanded. (I've often said the news networks should have bloggers fact-checking in real time because we have a lot more institutional knowledge than producers, but at least it's a start.)
Well done, CNN. Let's see more like this.