CNBC Slammed For Using Wrong Pictures For Andrew Yang And Tulsi Gabbard
During a recent airing of CNBC’s Squawk Box, the network aired a graphic that showed the fundraising totals of Donald Trump and all the Democratic presidential candidates. In the chyron, both Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard — who raised $16.5 million and $3.4 million, respectively — were portrayed as the wrong people. The network later apologized from the mistake, but that didn’t stop people from noting the pattern of both Yang and Gabbard not getting consistently accurate and fair coverage.
“I’m starting to buy the @NBCNews has it out for @AndrewYang theory,” Christopher J. Hale, a former congressional candidate and Obama White House and campaign alumni, tweeted in response to the omissions.
“They identified Yang as just a totally different Asian man and for Tulsi Gabbard they put Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand,” Saagar Enjeti said in a recent episode of The Hill’s Rising, which is posted on YouTube.
According to Enjeti and his co-host, Krystal Ball, Yang’s picture is Geoff Yang, a Silicon Valley investor who is on the board of AT&T, and they believe has likely been on CNBC before. As for Gabbard, the pair speculated that the network typed in “G” in their graphics backend and selected the wrong one.
Although Ball said that mistakes happen, she noted that this is far from the first time such an error has occurred.
“This is a repeated pattern, especially for Andrew. They either leave him off entirely, call him John Yang, they called his wife the wrong name. I mean, they just, over, and over, and over again. The guy has been in the race for a long time, he raised $16 million dollars, learn his face and his name, OK? It’s basic!”
Yang and his supporters have long criticized MSNBC — and other Comcast-owned companies like CNBC — for their coverage of the candidate, which led to the 44-year-old serial entrepreneur temporarily boycotting the network. A recent analysis by the nonprofit Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) found that Yang is left out of media conversations, noting the many instances of exclusion from MSNBC and CNN graphics. The report also noted that Yang received far fewer mentions in the last six months than Amy Klobuchar — who he has consistently polled better than — on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN.
CNBC has removed and apologized for this morning's "error," so for those who didn't see the video before it was removed, here is the relevant portion of the coverage. Note how they show the graphic TWICE. #YangMediaBlackoutpic.twitter.com/eFfUFD4roz
— Scott Santens (@scottsantens) January 6, 2020
Gabbard’s supporters previously pushed the #TulsiMediaBlackout hashtag — as Yang’s supporters have done with #YangMediaBlackout — after the Hawaii representative was left off an MSNBC chyron showing the candidates who qualified for the December debate as well as those that met just one requirement. Despite having met one condition at the time of the chyron, Gabbard was curiously left off the chart.
