Ted Turner’s Cable News Network was never unbiased, but after four years of Trump Derangement Syndrome, CNN is TDS. And ratings were not great, but without Trump, they crashed as caravans of viewers migrated to other content, leaving it a shell of its once great self. That’s a problem for its new masters, and changes are imminent.
CNN’s new boss, Chris Licht, is evaluating whether personalities and programming that grew polarizing during the Trump era can adapt to the network’s new priority to be less partisan.
Why it matters: If talent cannot adjust to a less partisan tone and strategy, they could be ousted, three sources familiar with the matter tell Axios.
Warner Brothers/Discovery took control as part of a merger, and the first casualty was CNN+. The unwatched premium service was aborted just outside the womb, and ownership has turned its eye on the mother ship. A global news powerhouse reduced by a petty obsession with hating on Trump and Republicans.
What was once the name in cable news is little more than a third-rate outlet with an overpriced payroll.
Brian Stelter and Jim Acosta may be the worst examples. Acosta thinks he is saving the world from Trump, and Stelter spends every waking moment telling people what FOX News is doing. But if Licht is serious about changing CNN, he will have to fire a lot more people. Don Lemon and Jake Tapper are names that spring to mind.
It sounds like CNN will be required to take transition drugs, and it won’t be painless.
I’m having a hard time feeling bad about any of that. I also don’t believe that CNN will come out the other side much differently than it is today. Chris Licht can make surface changes that people see, but as with most media, the partisanship will remain. The choice of stories to cover, the angle, deciding what truth to ignore.
It is the stock in trade of modern corporate media.
Like the attempted murder of Brett Kavanaugh. His would-be murderer admitted to police his plan to kill the Justice and, if necessary, his family. Imagine a Democrat-appointed justice being threatened in such a way during a Republican presidency.
It would be the only news.
That’s most of the media these days, with CNN and MSNBC in the vanguard. Priorities embedded in producers and staff like spike proteins that you don’t just eliminate with a few Zoom calls or meetings at the “office.”
It is a tall order but one that would be welcome.
CNN can’t survive on liberal outrage alone, and neither can MSNBC, by the way. According to the same article, May was their worst month since 1999.
Without Donald Trump to hate on, it looks like they have little or nothing to offer even to their far-left base.