Just after the clock had struck midnight on April 15th, it struck me that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un had promised us a special delivery on Tax Day: missile-delivered nuclear weapons aimed at US targets such as Austin, Texas and my own home of Los Angeles. I was more than a little concerned and unnerved, so I immediately went to the place where I thought I might get the latest on this unnerving threat: the Cable News Network.
But instead of getting the latest on whether April 15th would be my last day on Earth, I got this: a travelogue of Myanmar hosted by chef Anthony Bourdain.
There was not even the usual breaking news crawl across the bottom of the screen. There were no breaks to update us on what was going on in the world. Just a bunch of shots of Bourdain hanging out with a local Burmese indie band, drinking beer, walking through the streets, and riding on a train…and talking about himself a lot as if we already know or care who he is.
CNN has been falling in ratings and public esteem for years as first Fox News and then MSNBC have raced past them, and they can’t figure out why.
Here’s why: you’re the Cable News Network. The others are talking heads talk show networks. And in your pathetic attempts to compete, you continue to do the wrong things: you present less and less news and more and more talk shows, reality shows, and other happy horseshit that aren’t as good as the stuff on Fox News and MSNBC.
Your website, CNN.com, is the exact opposite: a go-to source for breaking news. But seasoned viewers already know not to go to the Cable News Network after your website alerts us to breaking news.
Just as Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC because they didn’t want to be perceived as the place that makes all that greasy chicken, the Cable News Network is clearly trying to appeal to the ladies now, and trying to get the ladies to watch something with the word “news” in it is like trying to get children to watch The Broccoli Channel: it’ll never happen. So now, you’re just CNN, and news now appears to be your lowest priority.
One small problem: for years, CNN was the place to go to see breaking news, and there were many people who had, at one time, relied on CNN for that. We are the people who are tuning away, never to return.
Showing a travelogue of a cooking show host on a night when the United States could very well have stood on the precipice of the end of life as we know it is the final declaration that CNN is out of the news business.
This will never work.
Good luck.
This is why I tuned out from CNN over a decade ago and haven’t even missed them.
absolutely. i go to the web site for the reason that you cited and also avoid the TV channel for the reason that you cited. what did it for me was when they started including those groups of loud, irritating people all talking over each other in order to give their opinions on whatever the story of the moment was. i just wanted the story itself, not a bunch of peoples’ opinions on it. that in itself is rather “vag”, as it’s a form of televised gossip.
CNN is becoming the MTV of news.