Should CNN.....

Give it back to Ted Turner.

 

Ashleigh Banfield is on CNN? Really?

Had no idea.

Does she still wear the same glasses?

 

Yes. Which I'm OK with.

But she's still terrible.

 

Yep, CNN International and Al Jazeera English have some damn fine programming.

 

It's hard to say what's deteriorated more over the past decade or so, SportsCenter or CNN. CNN used to absolutely OWN breaking news, but lately watching them try to cover something like the theater shootings in Colorado is much like watching the No. 4 station in El Paso, it's so embarrassing.

I don't think leaning one way or the other is the answer, since MSNBC's cast its lot with the left and FNC the right. Instead, why not go a little more in depth than "Here's an issue. Here's what a liberal says. Here's what a conservative says. I'm Denise Deecup, CNN." A Grantland of TV, so to speak.

 

CNN should stop sucking.

I think that would be a first step in the right direction. If, when they no longer suck, they still get terrible ratings, they can examine whether they need to be catering to the partisan howlers, but until they are no longer terrible anything else they blame their ratings on just seems like an excuse.

 

Like one of the critics in the article suggests, I would fire most of the talent.

Chew on this for a sec: Piers Morgan at 9 outdraws Anderson Cooper at 8 or 10. (Not both shows combined. But either one.)

CNN can take as long as it likes to come this conclusion, but Cooper's not the answer. And whatever CNN's doing in the morning, HLN/Robin Meade is beating them.

 

At least if a tornado hit its Bristol campus, ESPN would have people there to cover it and not get pwned by Tim Brando and Raycom Sports.

 

I don't understand why news stations feel the need to "go conservative" or "go liberal."

Why not just go with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and let the viewers decide?

 

Because if you are right down the middle, both sides can accuse you of hating them. If you're one or the other, only one side can say that.

If they go to the right or left they look like they're simply copying someone else's playbook.
The key would be to cover news, not politics. Politics is just name-calling now. I could watch FNC or MSNBC for an entire day and not learn a thing about the world, but learn why the other guys are destroying it. Hit the situation in Syria. Cover Isaac. Tell me what Europe is going to do with their economy. That might not get the ratings, but it will perform a public service.

And get Erin Burnett more airtime. She's yummy.

 

That night was probably the best example of how far CNN has plunged.

 

American cable news is, across the board, terrible at actual journalism outside breaking news coverage. CNN is frustrating because I can remember a time many, many years ago when, while it was probably never all that great, it seemed to be trying to invent and produce a plausible model of 24-hour news. Now it's devolved into a lot of flailing attempts at "entertainment" news that is not at all entertaining, and when no one watches falls back on the excuse that it's because they aren't as partisan as their competitors. While I'm sure it's not entirely false, you have to put out something worth watching before you can whine about all the big partisan meanies who don't watch you.

As stated above, CNN could just broadcast CNN International on its regular channel and accomplish being a pretty decent news source. They don't because they're terrified it won't make money and no one would watch it. Of course they aren't making money or being watched by being awful, so maybe they'll turn to quality reporting out of sheer desperation.