Big Networks/CNN Finally Notice Obama's 'You Didn't Build That' Remarks

It took four to five days for CNN and the big three networks to notice Obama told his audience at a Virginia campaign rally that business owners and other successful Americans aren’t responsible for their own success. Worse, it took advisers for Mitt Romney to comment before these news organizations deigned to report on the incident.

In Roanoke, Virginia on Friday, July 13, the President said to business owners, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,” causing an uproar on both sides of the aisle as Republicans expressed shock at Obama’s comments and liberals defended the President’s anti-business remarks.

Obama’s off-script comments, alternately considered a gaffe and his true feelings, quickly became the talk of the Internet and talk radio. But ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN don’t seem to have uttered a word about the controversy until days later.

On CNN, for instance, the first mention of Obama’s outrageous remarks didn’t appear until Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Ron Johnson mentioned them on Tuesday morning, July 17. CNN’s own reporters didn’t mention the incident until a little later that same day.

It even took a day longer for the big three networks to take notice of Obama’s controversial comments. Nearly five days passed before ABC, CBS, or NBC made mention of the incident.

What spurred the networks to discuss Obama’s anti-business screed was not the controversial nature of Obama’s rhetoric, but what the Networks felt was the Republican’s insolence against Obama in their reaction to his comments.

For Jessica Yellin, CNN’s White House correspondent, the issue was the slow response to the remarks made by Romney’s campaign. Of course, Yellin did not mention the slow response of her own network.

More absurdly, for ABC, CBS, and NBC, the issue was less Obama’s obvious disdain for both the business sector and successful Americans than it was the comments that Romney adviser John Sununu made when he said he wished Obama would “learn how to be an American.”

All the networks were shocked at Sununu for his response to Obama’s attack on America’s success.

So for five days not one of these news organizations felt that Obama’s comments on July 17 were in any way outrageous enough to report. But when Republicans started slamming the President for his nanny state remarks, the networks finally felt the GOP reaction was newsworthy enough to start talking about.