Moments after the Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, confusion was on display as both CNN and Fox News announced that the court shot down the program.
It was SCOTUSBlog.com that correctly dissected the ruling, which upheld the ACA, specifically the controversial “individual mandate.”
CNN.com blasted their homepage with the headline “Mandate struck down” and a breaking news alert that said: “The Supreme Court has struck down the individual mandate for health care.” In its live updates, it reported:
[Updated at 10:06 a.m. ET] In a landmark decision that will impact the nation for decades, the Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a key provision of President Barack Obama’s health care law, ruling that requiring people to have health insurance violates.
At 10:15 a.m., CNN posted “The Supreme Court has upheld the entire health care law by a vote of 5 to 4, Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears said. That includes the medicare provision.” CNN also corrected its breaking news headline on the homepage.
FoxNews followed suit, with an on-screen headline “Supreme Court finds health care individual mandate unconstitutional” followed moments later with “Supreme Court upholds individual mandate.”
