Allow me a rant: So what's wrong with CNN?

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

CNN anchors show what's popular on Twitter, run YouTube videos and ask viewers to choose the news.

What in the world is going on with CNN? It used to be a news network. The one of Christiane Amanpour and Nic Robertson. Now it is behaving like a gadget-crazed, Tweeter-maniacal adolescent. Where are the news? Why do they show cats who put socks on their head for 10 minutes instead of running full investigation reports? What the.....

Sorry I am starting to rant...

Yes, the most obvious explanation would be that they aren't doing well in the ratings and are desperate, that's the only explanation except that they are not really serious about the news anyway, especially for the domestic programming...they own a travesty called Headline News which has to be seen to be believed...

Indeed, they only seem to thrive when there is a war somewhere. Then they are at their top. There were jokes that CNN caused the wars in Iraq and the bombing of Serbia so it could test its new cameras. =)

One would think they would do well during election cycles too. From a foreigner's perspective, the States seem to be virtually in a permanent election mode with those 12+ month long election campaigns, no? But no...I saw the CNN "Situation Room" and I just stood there and gazed in amazement. At some point they split the screen into sixteen parts and every little piece was populated by a talking head. There were moments all sixteen talking heads were talking over one another. It was like a pub.

This is no journalism.

Some compare them to Glenn Beck, and say they are trying to mimick his level of intensity. Well, Glenn Beck is one person. All he needs is a chalkboard and a pair of funny glasses, and his craziness to populate the screen with his presence. It's even interesting to watch! For entertainment. He only needs a chalkboard and himself to entertain. Not a room full of smart-heads talking nonsense and scouting through people's Tweets. If they aimed at entertainment, they failed.

Don't get me wrong. Television needs teenage programs. It does. But they shouldn't call themselves "News" network. It is not that.

Of course we foreigners mostly have access to CNN-International, which is a bit different from the petty domestic CNN. They are expanding, now with an Arabic version of the program, etc.

CNN-International does run international news, yes. But have you tried to watch it for more than an hour? At some point you realize that they run 4-5 pieces of news all day. Over and over again. So it is worth watching for 30 minutes and that's it. That's sad. I used to refer to CNN as my primary US source, but that was a long, long time ago...

/rant (forgive me).

Comments

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Yes, good old times. =)
I still put either CNN or BBC or EuroNews or some other such "news" network as a background while I have my morning coffee. Funnily, on my TV, CNN is next to the porn channels. The temptation to press the remote one digit further is big, especially after they start repeating the same piece of news for the 3th time just within my breakfast time. The only thing stopping me is that porn in the morning...well, one kid keeps potting around home at that time while the other loudly demands to eat. =)

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

No, no, rant on! I was fearing you would rebuke me for my incoherent rant but I see you are willing to join...We can dig up even more things to complain about! =)

How about the endless commercial breaks? Eh?

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Heh. CNN is irrelevant crap for the most part. It used to be the first and only program for learning interesting international stuff that we received here in the 90's. Now that satellite gives me dozens of other networks, CNN is somewhere at the bottom of my list of watchable crap. Somewhere between Life&Fishing and Nickelodeon.

[chickendelight.livejournal.com]

So this is what I noticed, and maybe it's just me...

9/11 happened. Things got pretty intense for awhile...and then CNN turned into this mess of celebrity and sports related entertainment 'news'. I can't stand to watch it now because it's nothing but loud, flashy bullshit with no real content.

I remember when a major world news event happened a few years ago - CNN had no coverage of it for over an hour. Zero...not a mention. Neither did MSNBC. But FOX? FOX was all over that. FOX, for God's sake.

So right now, when something happens, I'm more apt to run to FOX before I run to CNN or MSNBC.

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

That's kinda sad, because, while Fox might be extremely professional and efficient in the news department, it tends to sneak in all that other partisan bias stuff inbetween the lines. Sure, that is mostly evening stuff, but still. Once you are hooked to the network, inevitably you suck in that other stuff too. And it is not like their pundits provide all sides of an issue. Well, they do give room for the opposite side of their own to begin to say a sentence in defense of its position...but then they mass-nuke it.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

CNN caused the wars in Iraq and the bombing of Serbia so it could test its new cameras

A Wag The Dog sort of thing!

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

I loved that film.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

I was already done with televised news when Wolf Blitzer "beamed in" an associate during the '08 elections. Dude, you're not actually talking to a hologram, you're talking to empty air. AND you're making your entire network look like a cadre of morons. AND you're insulting the intelligence of everyone watching. What a trifecta!

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

At the moment CNN International is showing a detailed documentary about the abandoned kids with mental disorders in Kenya. It's educating and thought-provoking. A large audience has access to the subject and it could result in higher awareness on the problem and more people getting involved in it.

Last month they made a documentary about Helen Zille, with interviews and everything. It prompted a post (http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/887982.html) about it here.

My point is that they still do real journalism. Forget about the stupid videogaming that they do most of the time on CNN USA.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but how many Americans bother to use anything else? We want big stories about big Hollywood weddings. That international stuff is boring.

*sigh*

a pox in Dish Network...

[russj.livejournal.com]

So _thats_ where the good news is.
I use Dish Network satellite service, and you have to order the next-bigger package to get the "International" channels, including History international, Turner movie classics and VH1-Classic.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

The question to me is not "What's wrong with CNN" as much as the statement that "broadcast television is not a good medium for hard news." Too many commercial breaks, too much need to focus on personalities to get eyes on the screen, and a too-structured block of time in which to address things. A book doesn't have a hard page limit. A magazine can run special reports. Television, radio? They're not a valuable medium for anything more than surface reports, and CNN is not unique in that regard.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Documentaries work very well in either radio or television format; there's nothing about the format that's stopping in depth news. It's got to do with commercial pressures. This is why you need 100% publicly funded independent broadcasters.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I just agreed with every word you said here.

Pinch me!

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

*tips hat to you.* A well-thought-out comment that I fully agree with.

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Meh. CNN's tune changed as its audience became more enamored of quick five-minute videos and other useless snippets that masquerade as "news." I quit paying serious attention after they 1.) started mixing in iReport vids with the real headlines and 2.) had some story about Britney Spears in two different headline categories at the same time. The same great mass of Americans that slavishly reads People instead of U.S. News and watches trash such as Dancing with the Stars but not Nightline in its heydey (I hated it when they started covering multiple stories) are pretty much cut off from serious, in-depth journalism, because they think the antics of spoiled Hollywood stars are more important, for some reason I've never understood. Thus, serious, in-depth journalism is dying.

I stick with NPR, the Washington Post, and the BBC these days, myself.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

I'd highly recommend you get some Al Jazeera in your diet as well. It offers a perspective that's often not considered by Western outlets.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

That's a problem with 24-hour-news channels. There are quite a few bits of daily life that aren't worth reading about or commenting on, and much of life in more peaceful times is well, boring. Which is good because what makes for interesting history to read tends to be nightmarish to live through. I agree that it's searching for ratings, but it's not particularly an easy thing to keep themselves in the black with.

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

There is plenty of worthwhile stuff to research on, even at peace times. And these times are not among them.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

[nevermind6794.livejournal.com]

The main problem is that everybody is stupid and everything sucks.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

I'm smart and awesome. There goes your theory :P

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

It's been this way for years. You haven't noticed before now?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

I <3 Daily Show