Between at 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. Wednesday, MSNBC played the tape of Sen. Marco Rubio taking a drink of water 155 times.
The now-famous Rubio sip blew up in the Internet world, but MSNBC thought it was newsworthy enough to broadcast it on an average of eight times per hour, The Daily Caller reports.
But perhaps the MSNBC host who took the story and ran with it the most was Rachel Maddow, who showed the moment playing on a loop at the bottom of the screen for 13 minutes. She accounted for playing the “Rubio sip” 101 times during her show Wednesday night at 9.
The meme was born when Mr. Rubio, Florida Republican, reached off camera to take a swig of water Tuesday night during his State of the Union rebuttal.
CNN’s “The Situation Room” host Wolf Blitzer even asked his audience Wednesday if a drink of water “can make or break a political career.”
MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” host Al Sharpton called the moment and “epic water fail” and parodied the senator by reaching off camera and attempting to drink from a 5-gallon jug.
The Daily Caller also reports that CNN played the Rubio sip 34 times, with most of them airing during Mr. Blitzer’s show. Fox News played it 12 times.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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