Dewey Defeats Truman 2.0: Parody Mocks CNN’s Blown Obamacare Coverage

Earlier today, CNN became even more irrelevant in the world of TV news by botching its coverage of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare. The network falsely reported that a section of the law known as the individual mandate had been struck down when in fact it had been upheld. It didn’t take long for the Internet to pile on, and within just a few hours, this “Dewey Defeats Truman” parody was floating around the web. Well played

For those of you who didn’t pass high school history, the image above is parodying a famous 1948 photograph of President Harry Truman holding up an erroneous newspaper headline from the Chicago Tribune. The paper mistakenly claimed that Truman had lost the election (he actually won by a very slim margin).

That’s an understandable mistake in 1948, when newspapers were on strict printing deadlines and telephones were still attached to walls. But we live in a world where information can be instantaneously transmitted around the globe with the touch of a button. Perhaps that speed is actually what did the network in. Technology allowed CNN to jump the gun before the court had actually finished its announcement.