CNN once had a slightly right-leaning tilt especially pre-Obama. I think what has happened is that the emergence of Fox News has sucked all the right-wingers over and all of a sudden CNN's audience was mainly center and left of center - so it did what made sense - adjust to its remaining audience.
related story: https://babylonbee.com/news/airport-revenues-soar-after-allowing-travelers-to-pay-to-turn-off-cnn Airport Revenues Soar After Allowing Travelers To Pay To Turn Off CNN November 14th, 2019 WORLD—Airports around the world are reporting record revenues after introducing a long-awaited feature: the ability to turn off CNN on television sets in their terminals. For just one quarter, you can turn off CNN for a full fifteen minutes while you're waiting for your flight, leaving you with the "far superior" experience of just staring at a blank screen. "At long last," said one man waiting for his flight at LaGuardia as he dropped a few dollars' worth of quarters into the "Turn CNN Off" slot. "Honestly, I might fly more now." He's not alone: airports expect a 426% uptick in traveling over the holidays as flyers no longer have to worry about having the droning words of CNN hosts pounded into their heads for hours on a layover. The feature has been one of the most-requested by travelers along with the dismantling of the TSA and pretzel bags with more than 3 pretzels in them. The money-making move has inspired moments of human compassion and unity as travelers lend each other money or leave quarters behind atop the television sets for future travelers to turn off CNN. One anonymous philanthropist at DFW prepaid for over a year of CNN-less travel throughout the terminal. "It's great to see what humanity can accomplish when we unite," said one man at LAX as he rummaged through his pockets to lend a quarter to a woman who wanted to turn off the CNN screen near her. "Here you go, miss. Enjoy your flight!" CNN is protesting the move, saying it has cut their viewing audience in half, leaving them with just one. A similar program is being rolled out in hospital waiting rooms throughout the country.
This is kind if the story all around. Conservatives retreated to their insulated conservative fortress of news solitude in the 1990s and 2000s and are flummoxed that everybody they Left Behind™ didn't spontaneously degenerate into conservatives. If you want your own little insulated conservative news ecosystem where you don't have to hear libtards, you can have your own little fantasy land where Nixon is an American hero, and the Clintons are running a child sex ring out of Comet Ping Pong. However, when you disconnect from the rest of the world, that disconnection works in both directions. When you try to hawk Don Junior books to the rest of us, nobody will be interested. If you dont like it, don't run away to hide in your right wing fantasy land.
Turley fans. now just looking at you @Major "A Tale of Two CNNs: Acosta and Tapper Capture the Worst and Best Moments For A Network Struggling With Objectivity": https://jonathanturley.org/2020/07/...ts-for-a-network-struggling-with-objectivity/ A Tale of Two CNNs: Acosta and Tapper Capture the Worst and Best Moments For A Network Struggling With Objectivity by jonathanturley July 17, 2020 There was a telling moment of dissonance on CNN this week, a network that is now unrelenting in its negative and highly partisan coverage of the Administration. CNN’s White House reporter Jim Acosta has been repeatedly called out for such bias and sent out a clearly misleading tweet bashing White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Meanwhile, CNN host Jake Tapper set the record straight in fairness to McEnany. While I have occasionally criticized Tapper, I have more often praised him for his professionalism and intellect. This is why. This is what CNN was once and, with the help of figures like Tapper, it could be again: an honest and objective news organization. In Thursday’s briefing, McEnany repeated President Trump’s call for children to go back to school in the fall. She is clearly citing the science as supporting the position of the Administration. However, Acosta clipped the statement to make it sound like McEnany was dismissing the relevance of science: “The White House Press Secretary on Trump’s push to reopen schools: ‘The science should not stand in the way of this.'” That was clearly and absolutely false. However, Acosta knew that it would play well in the eco-journalistic model adopted by CNN. He quickly racked up 30,000 retweets. He then later added that McEnany actually meant the opposite. That received less than 700 retweets. It is the ultimate example of the demand of many viewers to only hear news that supports their own bias and adds to a type of journalistic comfort zone. To Acosta’s credit, he sent out the second tweet, but saying “McEnany went on to say ‘the science is on our side here'” does not quite capture the scene. The quote was McEnany referring to a scientific study and, right after the line quoted, McEnany said “The science is very clear on this.” She then two lines later added “The science is on our side here.” The entire quote was McEnany raising a scientific study that supports their position. It is akin to a McEnany saying “National security is not relevant because the Defense Department report supports this policy” only to have Acosta tweet “The White House Press Secretary: “National Security is not relevant” in White House policy. Over at CNN headquarters however Tapper stepped out of that comfort zone and corrected CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta after he repeated the same false narrative that McEnany was having an “alternative facts kind of moment.” Tapper responded: “If I could just say, Sanjay,. I think she was just trying to say that the science shouldn’t stand in the way because the science is on our side. I don’t know that all of the science is on their side- and certainly, this White House, their respect for science knows bounds, let’s put it that way, but I think that’s what she was getting at.” That is why I remain a fan of Tapper. I have many friends still at CNN who privately lament the changes under President Jeff Zucker, who admitted that the unending focus on Trump was part of his effort to boast ratings. It is often impossible to distinguish CNN hosts from advocates on their programs. Hosts now engage in open advocacy against the President — discarding with the pretense of having a guest take a partisan position. I truly miss the old CNN. Many people feel that there is simply no source of objective news in this environment and are turning off the coverage. The loss to journalism is immense. Indeed, if anything, it may be driving people to Trump. It is clear that Zucker will continue the echo-journalistic model for ratings, just as the New York Times recently abandoned its own journalistic objectivity. Yet, there remains a a lingering presence at CNN where journalistic objectivity once was the rule. Call it a “phantom limb” sensation or muscle memory, but it is a reminder of what CNN should be.
I agree with Turley. CNN has lost its way, really it lost its way a long time ago before Trump came around. But then, they are chasing ratings and these kind of antics by their hosts supposedly are rated better? Actually, I’m not sure about that...FOX regularly beats them and CNN often competes against MSNBC for 2nd. They really should back off the opinion show format and move back to being a regular news channel...or at least reform Headline News into what it used to be. Then again...only a small percentage of the population still watches cable news channels these days so who knows.
There is a reason... they are beholden to billionaires and they want to push a narrative for the Dems. If they actually invested in news, they'd have ratings. The truth is... the quality isn't there. People would love to watch quality news. There was a Univ. of Missouri study done long ago that proved investing in quality writing and coverage improved a paper's circulation. But the response most board rooms go with is not to invest in the writers and quality, but instead one of three things: A: Sensationalize and mislead B: cheapen your staff and therefore quality... that's why most journos are green. They lay off anyone who is costing them and therefore the veteran and senior reporter is extinct in most newsrooms. C. Both.
"Gallup: Almost Three-Fourths Of Americans View Media As Too Biased": https://jonathanturley.org/2020/08/...ourths-of-americans-view-media-as-too-biased/ Gallup: Almost Three-Fourths Of Americans View Media As Too Biased For years, we have been discussing the rapid loss of objectivity and neutrality in the media where most viewers no longer trust what they read or hear. Various cable networks and newspapers have openly embraced the echo-journalist model, including the shocking actions of the New York Times recently to apologize for publishing a dissenting view of the protests by the U.S. Senator. Figures like CNN’s Jeff Zucker have openly abandoned any semblance of objectivity to seek ratings from viewers who only want to see and hear news that confirms their political preferences. This week, a leading producer at MSNBC became the latest journalist to quit due to the pressure to shape coverage to such bias. I testified in the Senate yesterday of this trend as part of the erosion of free speech in the United States. Now a Gallup poll has confirmed what these owners and editors have done to journalism in the United States. Almost half of those polled said that they viewed media as “very biased.” The poll by Knight Foundation and Gallup seems to shock many in the media but I do not know why. Many in the media has spent years in openly shaping the news to resist Donald Trump — just as some in the conservative media have done so in his defense. The difference is that the media is overwhelmingly and unrelentingly anti-Trump. President Donald Trump has said many things worthy of criticism, but many news outlets seem to be actively working for the election of Joe Biden. This includes softball interviews that are so fawning and feeble that they are cringeworthy. What is most interesting is that most Democrats are happy with the bias. The study found that 71% of Republicans have a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable opinion of the news media while 54% of Democrats have a very favorable view of the media. Only 22% of Democrats view the media in a very or somewhat unfavorable light. Just 13% of Republicans hold favorable views of the media. That is a sizable percentage of the population but they have been effectively written off by newspapers like the Washington Post and New York Times. The study notably found that 73% of feel that there is too much bias in the news — an increase from 65% two years ago. This includes 54% of Americans who believe that reporters now regularly misrepresent facts and 28% who said reporters were making things up in their entirety. They are correct. We have written how newspapers like the Washington Post have written demonstrably false accounts of even court rulings as well as facially unsound legal theories. Most of the complaints however are the simple refusal to publish stories that contradict a uniform narrative or orthodox view in the media. The resignation of MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary raises the same objections of other journalists who have been forced out media outlets. The producer for MSNBC’s second-most-watched program, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” wrote “I don’t know what I’m going to do next exactly but I simply couldn’t stay there anymore.” She stated: The longer I was at MSNBC, the more I saw such choices — it’s practically baked into the editorial process — and those decisions affect news content every day. Likewise, it’s taboo to discuss how the ratings scheme distorts content, or it’s simply taken for granted, because everyone in the commercial broadcast news industry is doing the exact same thing…But behind closed doors, industry leaders will admit the damage that’s being done.” The damage is evident in this and other polls. Media executives and many reporters are grabbing guaranteed ratings from echo-journalism while destroying their profession. Most Americans are not the core cable viewers who want to only hear news that confirm their bias. I come from a very liberal and Democratic Chicago family but many of my family complaint that they cannot find reliable news. These short-term strategies of figures like Zucker are killing the profession with a return to yellow journalism. News is becoming a form of entertainment masquerading as journalism. The problem is that fewer and fewer Americans seem to be buying it.
There is good journalism. It's just harder to sift through the steaks from the burgers. The constant editorializing and cheerleading in non-opinion articles is purely pandering at this point.
CNN always leaned a bit left - never right. I don't think it has changed all that much in their news, but having 24 hours of programming their opinion pieces are direct competition for Fox.... The CNN average viewer is much more highly educated and informed than the Fox one. DD
