'I'm gobsmacked.' How CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other media covered the Supreme Court leak

Some stories build over time.

The story about the leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that broke Monday wasn’t one of them.

When Politico published the story at 5:32 p.m. Arizona time, the news exploded.

This was an earthquake from the start, a true bombshell, and it’s only grown from there. It’s perhaps the most important leaked story since the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers in 1971.

But media has exploded since then, and the impact of the Politico story showed it. A big story still follows certain patterns in how it’s covered. This one did, too.

Twitter turned into a referendum on the leak and its contents

Twitter and Instagram are where many people get their news, especially of the breaking variety. Twitter in particular turned into one giant instant referendum on the story — and, of course, what was in it. There was the nagging question over whether it was legitimate. That’s always a nagging question with leaks, especially when other media can’t confirm the veracity of the information. More on that momentarily.

What’s a little strange is that this was the surprise that wasn’t. It’s been clear to anyone paying attention that the majority of the current court is engineered expressly to overturn reproductive rights.

But like a relative with a terminal illness, even though you know the outcome, it’s still a shock when it arrives.

Which it hasn’t in this case — this is just a draft opinion, after all, a first draft shared among the justices in February, something that every responsible story should include. But it is definitely a shock, as coverage Monday night made clear.

“I’m gobsmacked,” Irin Cameron, a senior correspondent for New York Magazine, told Chris Hayes on Hayes’ MSNBC show.

That was about the size of it everywhere.

Fox News was not taking a victory lap

“We have huge breaking news tonight, and I can’t even believe I’m going to tell you what I’m about to tell you,” Hayes said by way of introducing the story.

CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic told Anderson Cooper, “My initial reaction is that it’s stunning on so many levels. First of all, for what’s happening in America. We’re talking about 50 years of precedent, it appears now will definitely be thrown out the window."

Fox News was not taking the victory lap you might expect. Sean Hannity had attorney Alan Dershowitz and its own legal correspondent, Gregg Jarett, on. Jarrett told Hannity, “I’m skeptical, too, along with you. … I must tell you this sounds very much like a politician wrote it. Right now I’m in the skeptical category.”

As well he might have been. It’s the kind of story that you have to couch in certain ways until you can confirm it yourself, and no one was able to — because this was, as far as anyone could tell, uncharted territory. The Supreme Court simply does not leak draft opinions.

Until it did.

Tuesday brought the expected developments. President Joe Biden didn’t give a press conference, but he spoke to reporters before boarding Air Force Once.

“It’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence if it were to hold,” Biden said, among other things.

Vice President Kamala Harris also issued a statement, much more forthright.

“What is clear is that opponents of Roe want to punish women and take away their rights to make decisions about their own bodies,” it says in part. “Republican legislators in states across the country are weaponizing the use of the law against women. The rights of all Americans are at risk.”

That’s strong language, but expected when a story like this breaks. So too were the statements from Democrats about how outraged they are, and the statements from Republicans saying they’re going to get to the bottom of who leaked the draft.

Chief Justice John Roberts issuing a statement was another surprise

Then something unusual happened. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement confirming that the draft is authentic.

“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” it begins. “The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”

It goes on to say that the court will launch an investigation into who leaked the draft.

This just doesn’t happen. Roberts doesn’t typically make statements like this, because he doesn’t have to. Some government offices leak like the S.S. Minnow on “Gilligan’s Island.” But the Supreme Court works in secret, until it announces its rulings.

As Tuesday wore on, journalists branched out to cover other stories — what, if the court does overturn Roe, does that mean to women? What does it mean for other rights? What states will ban abortion completely? Where will it still be legal?

There are more questions than answers right now, because this is a story that is far from over. It’s tempting to say it’s the biggest story in years. But then you remember that the COVID-19 pandemic and its massive toll on lives and how we live them. You remember the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, something we had never seen in our lifetimes, no matter how long that lifetime was.

We live in tumultuous times. Just when you think nothing can surprise you, something does.

“This was the biggest case of this term, the biggest case of the decade in some ways,” Biskupic said. “And to have it burst forth on the American public like this is, to use a word that John Roberts used in his own confirmation hearing, a jolt — and 10 times the jolt.”

Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How CNN, Fox News and MSNBC covered the leaked Supreme Court draft