The Death of CNN

 

CNN is in big trouble.  It's viewership during prime time continues to drop.  To give you an idea about how bad it is, the number of people watching CNN during prime time is equal to the combined population of Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana Counties...around 530,000.  By comparison, about 2.65 million are watching Fox News.  Broken down by programs, it is even worse.  Piers Morgan's coveted 9:00 PM slot has a viewership around 200,000. 

CNN decided to remedy the situation by changing the head dude.  I have read numerous reasons for the ratings debacle at CNN blaming pretty much everything and everybody but the real cause.  Their news sucks.  It is bias.  It is irritating.  It is condescending.  

CNN still has the best breaking news coverage.  When there is a disaster or a breaking story of national import, it still maintains the capacity to get the news faster and better than any other news channel be it network or cable.  Unfortunately, it's regular news coverage has devolved into a complete mess.

It has become the voice of what it perceives to be the oppressed.  All black, all gay, all day.  If there is the even the smallest, most insignificant story relating to minorities, women and gay activists, it bounces to the front of the news lineup and the reporters harangue endlessly about how horrible the story is.  Maybe it is horrible, but that's life.  There is lots of horrible stuff that happens to people every day, but it doesn't make the news...and be all of the news...for a 24 hour news cycle.

The commentators and hard news reporters do little to hide their disdain for Republicans and conservatives.  Soledad O'Brien sneers when interviewing someone anywhere right of left of center.  Wolfe Blitzer isn't much better.  He is like a robot babbling on and on asking the same inane questions with his eyes bulging out of his head...baba-baba-baba-baba.  I stare at the television in disbelief that CNN even puts this guy on. 

Yesterday the Republican Senate candidate in Missouri made some asinine comments about women and rape.  There was a fema-nazi explosion on CNN. They were shaking in their ecstasy of excitement...it's the end of the Republican Party...he is going to save the day for Democrats....Ohhhh.  Romney is in trouble now because now the whole world can see the evil heart of Republicans.  Really?

What is shows is that Congressman Aikin is an idiot and horrible politician, but not much more. Yet these folks went into contortions to try to connect the dots between Aikin and Romney and the moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party.  Meanwhile, Joe Biden is off putting people back in chains and he was poo-pooed...and unemployment went up to 8.3%.

I challenge anyone to turn on CNN and not see the hard news reporters talking about anything but minority rights, women's rights, and gay rights.  Here are stories you won't hear on CNN.  The killing fields of Chicago.  The war in Afghanistan.  The homeless.  The high unemployment rate.  Rising gas prices.  Rapidly rising food prices.  College age adults living at home because they can't find work.  The strangulation of the coal industry in the United States. The number of people on food stamps. The rise in the poverty rate in the United States.  If it weren't for CNN International, which makes boat loads of money, CNN would be out of business. 

Everybody laughs about "fair and balanced" at Fox.  But some of the CNN reporters, especially some of the female reporters, are just plain scary.   CNN needs to lose Wolfe Blitzer, Soledad O'Brien, and Piers Morgan plus any number of those snob blond babes who are anchoring other "hard" news throughout the day.  They should put Anderson Cooper into a slot where that pained look may actually do some good. Maybe then, somebody would actually watch it.

In the meantime, the seriousness of the issues that CNN holds itself out to care about are trivialized to the point where people like me just turn them off.  And that's a real shame.  Talks is cheap...too cheap at CNN.