The post Time to stop bashing CNN appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>In many progressive circles, it’s become open season on CNN. The oldest cable news network has become the recent whipping boy of humorist Jon Stewart as well as many others who see the network as bumbling along with one error after another.
While Fox is deservedly viewed with great disdain by progressives, there are many who consistently toe the line with MSNBC. I am among the many who frequently find it affirming to watch MSNBC to receive reinforcement for the views that I have held for numerous years. I’m also among those who find it to be as boorish as it is insightful.
CNN is different from the two aforementioned. It is a news channel, or at least it tries to be one. When visionary Ted Turner launched the network on June 1, 1980, he set out to bring the United States and the rest of the world immediate news from wherever it occurred. This required a large staff of reporters, cinematographers, producers, editors and managers. Miriam-Webster refers to news as “new information or a report about something that has happened recently.” The presumption here is that it will be presented in an accurate fashion, or as Fox mistakenly says about itself, in a “fair and balanced” way.
Except on weekend nights, CNN is 24/7 news. It broke us through the barrier of having to wait until 5:30 PM (6:30 PM in the East and West) for what became commonly known as “breaking news.” CNN had the capability to turn live to any story in which there was breaking news. When the U.S. went to war in on August 2, 1990 to kick Iraq’s Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, CNN brought us the “green jello” from many angles and many reporters. We heard from soldiers with boots on the ground, from military leaders, from Iraqi citizens on various sides of the dispute, from Kuwaitis and other interested parties in the Mid-East and around the world.
In 1992, when Bill Clinton energetically captured the Democratic nomination for president by plodding through dozens of primaries and caucuses, CNN was there. We the viewers received far more information on political strategies from key personnel than we ever had before in a campaign. When Clinton made himself a political fool and legal target in the Monica Lewinsky escapade, CNN was also there.
Through these stories and many more in recent years, CNN has worked to fill up 168 hours a week with news. The result is that many of us are far better informed than we previously were, but we also have been provided with unintended comedy. The station that tries to cover every story from beginning to end intended to do so with missing Malaysian Airline Flight 370. Regrettably for CNN, this is only the latest story in which the network becomes a parody of itself. Initial coverage was thorough, albeit it halting because of the misinformation of the Malaysian government as well as the overall paucity of facts. Traditionally when real breaking news occurs, CNN’s ratings double, allowing it to surpass Fox and MSNBC combined. It was in the network’s interest to keep the story of the missing airliner in the category of breaking news, so it made every attempt to do so.
But the story dragged on day after day and week after week. Now two months later, we really know no more than we did the day of the disappearance, perhaps less. CNN has laid itself on the line repeatedly, and generally come up empty. The low-point may have come on the evening of March 20 when anchor Don Lemon raised the question of whether the plane had disappeared in a black hole. “That’s what people are saying,” Lemon said. “I know it’s preposterous – but is it preposterous you think, Mary?” (to former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo). Schiavo calmly responded “A small black hole would suck in our entire universe, so we know it’s not that.”
Many laughed at Lemon’s questions as many had laughed the previous year at CNN’s round-the-clock coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings which included a number of false theories, albeit all of them were qualified as not properly sourced.
CNN has made a fool of itself. But it’s also doing something that no other network has done – work to provide up-to-date news 24/7. This means that situations arise such as when Lemon was repeatedly asked to go on the air hours at a time and talk about the missing plane, while no news was happening and the only thing left to talk about was discredited theories and wild hypotheses. He was a good soldier to go out and try to keep alive the illusion of breaking news.
It finally became so farcical that the network essentially gave up coverage of what had become a non-story. But they were right that it was an unsolved mystery, and experts from around the world were faced with a challenge the likes of which they had never previously seen.
Joking about some of CNN’s on-air embarrassing moments is fair. But to use these moments to characterize their entire body of work is not fair. They have taken on a challenge that none of the other networks have attempted to duplicate. Perhaps CNN would vet their stories better if they had real competition in the round-the-clock news business. In the absence of that, I’m certainly willing to give them a break and would find it terribly disappointing if the mockery of their mistakes became so widespread that they gave up their mission of trying to bring us timely news.
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]]>In April, 2013, Renee Shur wrote a wonderful piece in the Occasional Planet entitled, “Dear MSNBC: Grow up, already.” She truly nailed it with how the frequent supercilious and bombastic approach of its hosts undermined the communication of progressive news.
I have adopted Renee’s point of view and taken my own vacations from MSNBC. But when it came to the transgressions of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, I came back home to MSNBC because I knew that it was most equipped to dig into the story and deliver current, and often hidden, information on a daily basis. I was not disappointed with MSNBC, beginning with coverage of Christie’s lame press conference on January 9 and continuing to the present.
Most informative to me have been “Politics Nation with Al Sharpton,” “All In with Chris Hayes,” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, and most particularly “Up with Steve Kornacki.” Each of the hosts seems to have toned down his or her shouting, and rather than being snarky they’ve been investigative. They have had live interviews with a series of New Jersey state officials as well as local journalists. Coming from Missouri, I was shocked at the intelligence, the knowledge-base and the critical thinking skills of these men and women.* Among the legislators and journalists who were interviewed and who filled in so many of the blanks in the story were:
This was quite a contrast to what I saw and heard in the mainstream press. For example, just before Christie was to deliver his “State of the State” address, CNN pundit Gloria Borger was asked what he (Christie) needed to do in his speech. She immediately said that he needed to regain the trust of the legislators as well as the people of New Jersey. What a pat and meaningless answer. What words can someone who has been an on-going liar say to convince an audience that he’s now telling the truth? Really there are none. If someone wants to regain trust, he or she must act in a trustworthy fashion – over an extended period of time. After former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned from the governorship, he spent several years below the radar, and in time gained new respect. Now, he is a leader of the progressive movement. In contrast, former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner resigned in disgrace, continued to engage in the type of behavior that forced his recognition, and then ran for mayor of the city of New York while all his transgression were still fresh in voters’ minds. He came in last in the field with single-digit support.
At this point, Christie has almost all of the Nixonian characteristics of someone who is going to fall, and fall hard. Back in the time of Watergate, CBS News was one of the main gatherers and reporters of all that Nixon had done and continued to do. Today, CBS is but a dot on the landscape, with short and often misleading mentions of “Bridge-gate.” In contrast, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post and many local outlets in New Jersey are hot on the case. We’re most fortunate to have them doing so. While MSNBC has cut into my reading time, it does provide enough commercial time so that it’s not all lost. They’re doing a great job – stay cool, stay calm, and watch your ratings increase as you do so.
* I recognize that there are some outstanding legislators in Missouri; unfortunately they’re not in positions of power.
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]]>Dear Chris M., Rachel, and Lawrence at MSNBC:
Sorry old friends. You got me through a lot of hard times. But you’ve lost me. I’m weaning myself away. So here’s my confession. It might help you understand why it’s really, truly over.
In the run up to the 2012 election, I confess I indulged in a nightly dose of MSNBC for four straight, mind-numbing hours. From Chris to Ed to Rachel to Lawrence, it didn’t matter that most nights each one of you hashed over the same tidbit, embellishing it just enough with your own spicy sauce to make it sound as if you were the first and only one stirring the pot.
You could say I ate, drank, and slept the news. That’s what fear will do. The dread I felt about a Mitt Romney presidency and the crazies of the Republican party gaining more sway than they already had kept me glued to your news casting. You coddled my political leanings, and so I clung to you—my fellow progressives and your words—for dear life.
In the uncertainty of how the election would end, MSNBC became my lifeline. MSNBC became my surrogate mommy—soothing me with a gentle touch to my fevered head while crooning that “yes, my dear, there is a tooth fairy”; and, “yes, my dear, she’s doing everything she can to get Obama elected.”
And this: “Yes, dear, there are still sane—nay, even thoughtful, rational people out there somewhere in the universe.” (Can you hear it? This is where we cut to the mellifluous opening notes of Judy’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”) And there was even more: “Yes, dear, there will be life after the next election, no matter who wins.” (That one I wasn’t so sure about.)
Let me be clear. You news-junky hosts on MSNBC and your smarter-than-smart staffs were the only ones on national television highlighting stories and framing the news in a way that squared with my progressive viewpoint. And for that I was grateful.
But post-election, the thrill is gone.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ve gotten tired of the graphic gimmicks and silly bells and whistles that are there to seduce an audience decades younger than I. Or maybe it’s that Chris M. interrupting the thought flow of yet another distinguished guest became too infuriating or the brilliance of Rachel’s mind and the circular construction of her solo arguments became too familiar and too predictable. (Must familiarity always breed contempt?)
Or maybe it’s just that I thought that after you got over the first blush of finding yourselves on the big stage trumpeting the progressive line, you’d settle in to some good old-fashioned, serious journalism. Of course, things haven’t turned out as I thought they might.
To be fair, there’s serious journalism underpinning your programs, but to this viewer the egos gone wild and self-indulgent strutting of wit and intelligence kick the serious box out from under all of you.
Edward R. Murrow you are not.
It was March 21, at 9:27 pm to be exact, when I knew it was over. That night, during a segment on Rachel’s show, the commentary encapsulated everything that’s turned me off MSNBC’s news coverage.
Something really important had happened that day. Something really important that illustrated the cynical propaganda campaign that’s undermining what we know about our elected officials, the world, and the real workings of our democracy.
Of course, I know that you, Rachel, know. But did you present the story with the seriousness it deserved? The answer is no. First off, you were nearly squirming with delight to show us how clever you and your staff were for discovering and connecting the dots. If I had you in front of me, I’d say: Stop touting your smarts. It demeans your calling.
If you remember, on March 21 President Obama was in the midst of his first visit to Israel. He was being shown, by live feed, receiving Israel’s highest honor as a true friend and trusted ally. As Rachel and her staff discovered, at the same time, Fox News was running a program excoriating Obama as the archenemy of Israel.
The contrast between reality and the imaginary world of Fox could not have been more stark. But Rachel, you sneered and giggled. Your demeanor said, “You’re in on the joke, viewers, can you believe this? Those wild and crazy, out of it guys at Fox. Those wild and crazy Republican wing nuts. You and me, we’re educated, smart, with it, not like those bozos.” (Hear the sound of laughter.)
That kind of delivery might make you, Rachel, your staff, and your audience (me, included) feel good about what we believe to be our superior knowledge, education, and nuanced understanding of politics, but it’s not journalism. And it’s not what we need right now.
And Rachel, you’re not alone. Lawrence and guests indulge in barely disguised snickers during a nightly Rush Limbaugh segment. You might say that laughing at Rush is the best medicine. (Remember how Mel Brooks said the same about another demagogue?) But an awful lot of people take Rush very, very seriously—to their detriment and ours. After all, Rush’s lies are why we have people in need who believe that Obamacare is a Frankenstein (as someone recently referred to it in my local newspaper).
So I say, grow up MSNBC hosts. Maybe there’s still time to win back this viewer. Focus a little less on glorifying your own opinions and displaying your self-satisfaction and more on giving us the facts. Make your hours less about you and more about the news. Forget about entertainment and start creating some grown-up news casts because that’s what we—and our democracy—really need.
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