After devoting extensive coverage to Geithner hearing on AIG, cable networks all but ignore live testimony on Treasury powers

CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News aired virtually no live coverage of Timothy Geithner's testimony before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on regulatory reform in the financial industry. By contrast, CNN and MSNBC each aired live more than an hour, and Fox News approximately 14 minutes, of Geithner and Ben Bernanke's testimony at a committee hearing on AIG two days earlier.

On March 26, the major cable news networks -- CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News -- all but ignored Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's testimony before a House Financial Services Committee hearing, "Addressing the Need for Comprehensive Regulatory Reform," airing virtually none of the hearing live. In fact, two of the three networks -- MSNBC and Fox News -- aired no live coverage of the March 26 hearing whatsoever, though MSNBC played a recorded clip from the hearing during a related report. CNN aired about three minutes of that hearing live. Their failure to devote live coverage to Geithner's testimony regarding regulatory reform stood in stark contrast to the more than an hour of live coverage CNN and MSNBC each devoted to Geithner's and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony at the House Financial Services Committee hearing two days earlier, "Oversight of the Federal Government's Intervention at American International Group." Fox News aired approximately 14 minutes of the March 24 hearing live.

The comparison was based on network coverage from the first 90 minutes of each hearing, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET. Only live coverage with audio was counted. Though both hearings continued past 11:30 a.m. ET, coverage past this point was not included in the comparison due to President Obama's March 26 town hall scheduled at that time.

MSNBC

March 24: 67 min.

March 26: None

Fox

March 24: 14 min.

March 26: None

CNN:

March 24: 70 min.

March 26: 3 min.

March 24 coverage

Live coverage start time (ET, rounded)

Network

Program

Length of coverage (rounded)

10:05:00 AM

MSNBC

MSNBC Live

1 min.

10:07:00 AM

MSNBC

MSNBC Live

26 min.

10:40:00 AM

MSNBC

MSNBC Live

2 min.

10:52:00 AM

MSNBC

MSNBC Live

38 min.

11:01:00 AM

FNC

Happening Now

7 min.

11:23:00 AM

FNC

Happening Now

7 min.

10:04:00 AM

CNN

CNN Newsroom

13 min.

10:20:00 AM

CNN

CNN Newsroom

20 min.

10:53:00 AM

CNN

CNN Newsroom

37 min.

March 26 coverage

Live coverage start time (ET, rounded)

Network

Program

Length of coverage (rounded)

10:32:00 AM

CNN

CNN Newsroom

3 min.