Tuned In

Dead Tree Alert: CNN Feels the Squeeze

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | April 23, 2010 | +
Illustration by Francisco Caceres for TIME

And speaking of when media companies attack (themselves), my print column this week looks not at TIME but another unit of Time Warner: CNN, its nosedive in the primetime ratings and its plight as cable-news viewers increasingly turn to more-partisan hosts on Fox News and MSNBC. I’d like the channel to focus less on being a vanilla neutral ground—what I called in another column “moderate bias”—and focus more on being an aggressive advocate for viewers, by calling shots and fouls in partisan arguments.

As Jay Rosen has often written, it’s not enough to interview two sides, then shrug and let the viewers do their own fact-checking; if you know one side to be demonstrably full of it, then say so. Back in 1980, viewers looked to CNN as the only source of 24-hour TV news. Now, with a multiplicity of sources, and a raft of interested parties kicking up dust around the facts, viewers are more likely to want CNN (or someone else) as a referee of contested issues.

Put another way, it’s possible to take a side (i.e., call b.s. for what it is) without being predictably partisan (i.e., calling out the b.s. of one side only) or falsely “balanced” (i.e., straining to show that both sides are always equally full of b.s., even on issues where they’re not). One good, if fledgling, example of this is Jake Tapper’s partnering with Polifact to fact-check guests on ABC’s This Week. (I’d discussed this in the column and had to cut it for space, so maybe that’ll be another column at some point.)

Yes, it’s another “What Should CNN Do?” column. Although as I say here, I don’t pretend my suggestions will increase CNN’s ratings. The implicit lie in all such columns is that people like me pretend that the kind of news we’d like to see will also produce the best ratings; but that’s not true, any more than American Idol is the best show on television. But if—as CNN likes to say, citing its profits and its international reach—it doesn’t really care so much about primetime ratings, then I’d like to see it act like it doesn’t care, and use its authority with more guts.

Related Topics: cable news, cnn, dead tree alert

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  • James, Los Angeles

    You ARE aware, aren’t you, that MSNBC hosts a full three hours of conservative talk every single morning?

    “Part of CNN’s problem is that Fox News and MSNBC cater to the right and the left, respectively, cultivating faithful fans.”

    And Chris Matthews is certainly not “left” and he certainly never “caters” to liberals or progressives; on the contrary, where he gushes over manly conservatives like John Boehner, he openly disdains any Democrat more liberal than, say ultimate centrist Barack Obama. Witness his treatment of Alan Grayson, for example. Deutsch doesn’t “cater” to liberals or progressives either.

    Methinks you are what we call “falsely ‘balanced’ (i.e., straining to show that both sides are always equally full of b.s., even on issues where they’re not).”

    …Or what I call “steeped in media groupthink.”

    Cheers.

  • rover27

    Amen!

  • gorgegirl

    CNN is basically nothing more than Anderson Cooper anymore. I like Anderson, but one can only take so much of him. If CNN wants to increase it’s audience, they might try “retiring” Larry King. A person can only handle so many reruns of Larry King in one day and the weekend too. His guest list is getting close to the ridiculous. How about someone like Ronald Reagan Jr? Or, even do something like a “West Coast Live” with not only Ronald Reagan Jr from Seattle, but someone from LA or Phoenix? I really enjoyed the Connected: Coast to Coast that Ronald use to do with Monica Crowley.
    As it is, those on the West Coast get the shaft as to the time slots and everything. To see a morning program like Morning Joe on MSNBC, you have to wake up at 4AM. And I thoroughly enjoy that show. Perhaps it is time for CNN to take a good look at that format. Here you have a moderate democrat and a moderate Republican doing the show together along with other guests of both political parties.
    Try something new – like saying goodbye to Larry King.

  • textee

    Anyone incapable of recognizing the fact that CNN is, was and forever will be as virulently and militantly leftist as AMessNBC, Time magazine, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, ESPN, self-described Comedy Central, the New York Times-Democrat, the execrable Associated (with terrorists) Press, Sports Illustrated, et al., is a fool.

  • http://nbarnhart.wordpress.com nbarnhart

    Your ‘solution’ for any news outlet, including CNN, is to “focus… on the truth”. That assumes you, or someone, knows what the ‘truth’ is and simply print it for all of us readers to learn the ‘truth’ and thus to separate it from all of the other printed babble.

    I gues that means you know the ‘truth’ about:
    a) Did OJ kill his ex wife?
    b) Should US investigators extend mMiranda rights to terrorists?
    c) Did Bush know for sure that Iraq had WMD?
    d) Was the jury (any jury) correct in finding the accused guilty of rape or murder or anything else?
    e) Should the Obama administration defend Bush’s interrogation tactics?

    I feel the ‘truth’ is illusive, in the eye of the beholder and can change with different circumstances. Do we ever have enough information to identify the ‘truth’ everytime?

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