CNN slams MSNBC for using LED backdrop to pretend they’re at RNC

MSNBC hosts Jen Psaki, Joy Reid, and Rachel Maddow were found to be reporting in front of an LED screen in New York that made it appear as if the left-wing pundits were reporting live from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. CNN's Jake Tapper called out the outlet during a live broadcast from the RNC, saying that the outlet was live from Milwaukee unlike "some other networks that just have a big LED."

"We are here live, as opposed to some other networks that just have a big LED, who shall remain nameless," Tapper said, according to Fox News.

Savanah Hernandez for Turning Point Action revealed that the location where the hosts would be, based on the angle of the crowd behind them, did not have a table or the hosts. However, a camera crew for MSNBC was at that location at the RNC, likely running a feed behind the hosts.  

Hernandez had said she had been confronting the members of the mainstream media all week and had not been able to find Reid, Maddow, and Psaki. After learning that they were using an LED screen, she went over to the MSNBC camera booth and spoke about how she would not be able to ask why Joy Reid has been pushing debunked theories that Trump was not shot in the ear.  

According to the New York Post, the hosts have been using a giant LED screen that makes it appear as though they are reporting live from the event. The arrangement may raise ethical concerns in journalism and reporting for the broadcast news outlet. "If news organizations don’t represent where they are clearly, then how is the audience to have faith and confidence in the actual content of the reporting?" former CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno said of the screen. “It can feel like a frivolous thing — oh, well, gee, we’re just using the pictures behind them — but there’s something profoundly important here.” 

The hosts had said things during coverage along the lines of “Good evening from New York” as well as “we say hi here from MSNBC HQ in New York" during their coverage. However, the screen makes it appear as though they are reporting live at the convention center. 

An MSNBC spokesman told the New York Times on Wednesday, “At the top of every broadcast, hosts identify themselves as being in New York or at MSNBC headquarters."