A wise man once said, “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Well, someone at CNN must have been drinking the Ricky Bobby juice this morning, because the nonpartisan and actually news-oriented cable news channel was the major outlet to report the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision over the fate of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
CNN eventually updated and corrected its story.
Update, 12 p.m.: CNN issued a formal apology for its preliminary report that the Supreme Court invalidated the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act:
In his opinion, Chief Justice Roberts initially said that the individual mandate was not a valid exercise of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause. CNN reported that fact, but then wrongly reported that therefore the court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional. However, that was not the whole of the Court’s ruling. CNN regrets that it didn’t wait to report out the full and complete opinion regarding the mandate. We made a correction within a few minutes and apologize for the error.
Update, 2:30 p.m.: Don’t feel terrible, CNN. (Well, OK, do.) President Obama, according to Talking Points Memo, momentarily thought his administration lost the case because, like many, he was watching for news about the Supreme Court’s decision on CNN. TPM reports:
The president remained calm in the face of what would have been devastating news for his signature legislation, according to senior White House officials. One to two minutes passed before White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler entered the room flashing two thumbs to signal that the law had, in fact, survived almost entirely intact.
Womp womp.
