Cable News Network (1980- ), better known as CNN, is one of the three main cable news stations in the US. Although it has been rightly called the Clinton News Network, it is not as nakedly partisan as MSNBC (Democratic) or Fox News (Republican).
- Ownership: Time Warner, a top donor to Hillary Clinton.
- Location: Time Warner Center in New York.
- Political viewpoint: White Liberal, very much in the vein of Hillary Clinton.
- Viewers: 1.06 million daily viewers (2017), well behind MSNBC (1.65m) and Fox News (2.35m), but more than double its numbers five years ago, thanks mainly to Donald Trump.
- Fans: part of the media diets of Terry McMillan and President Trump.
- Trust: As of July 3rd 2017, 91% of Democrats trust CNN more than President Trump, but only 9% of Republicans do.
Some tropes I have noticed:
- He said, she said – stories are often framed as two opposing points of views. This allows CNN to avoid coming down on one side or the other and therefore seem “fair”. It also lends itself easily to:
- panel discussions – CNN will present a story and then get several talking heads to comment on it. The range of opinions is somewhat broader than on MSNBC or Fox News, which are often little more than partisan echo chambers. But much of CNN’s discussion is screwed up by:
- paid trolls – CNN seems to have a Jerry Springer model of television: put people together on stage who you know will get into an argument. They pay people like Jeffrey Lord (pictured) who they know will troll the discussion rather than offer any kind of serious insight.
- Kellyanne Conway – a Trump adviser who they repeatedly have on even though she lies and avoids answering questions.
- tweetology – they go nuts over Trump’s tweets.
- Broken Africa – war, famine, poverty, etc, seem to be only stories in Africa worth covering.
- Islamophobia – most of the killers they feature seem to be Muslims who kill White people.
- US imperialism – CNN was a big cheerleader for the Gulf War and the Iraq War.
- Disappearing Indian Trick – Did they even cover #NoDAPL?
- Black pathologies – more common before 2012?
- Missing White Women – common before 2006. They got heat for only covering missing people who were pretty White women, so it seems they stopped covering missing people altogether.
Coverage:
- Black Americans: Unlike Fox News, MSNBC or RT, CNN has a regular evening news show hosted by an actual Black person, Don Lemon. He is a coon, but he does regularly have on intelligent Black (Liberal) people who talk about more than just “Black” issues. That puts him leagues beyond anything else on US television, news-wise, outside of Trevor Noah and Roland Martin. But that is not saying much.
- The 2016 election: Even though CNN favoured Hillary Clinton at the political level, they wound up giving Donald Trump way more free television time because he was great for ratings. So great, in fact, that at one point they showed his empty podium live rather than a speech Bernie Sanders was giving at the same time.
– Abagond, 2017.
Sources: Google Images (for images), Axios (poll), Variety (audience size), Vox (compared to political satire).
See also:
- propaganda model
- US cable news
- people on CNN, past and present:
- Don Lemon
- T.J. Holmes
- Amy Holmes
- Angela Rye
- White Liberals
- Black Liberals
- Trevor Noah
- Roland Martin
- #NoDAPL
- Missing White Women
- Islamophobia
- Broken Africa
- Black pathology
- tweet
- coon
560
It makes me wonder why the right considers CNN as part of the liberal media when they’ve been taking it easy and even cater towards right wing ideologies and behaviors from time to time.
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CNN and FOX are right next to each other on my channel lineup, so at least one morning a week I make a game of switching back and forth as a way to get the current liberal and conservative talking points. I have done this with my kids as well to teach them about media bias because it so clearly shows how disingenuous they both are.
The thing I find most annoying about CNN is how much all their talking heads love to play fortune teller. Watching any 15 minute block in the morning usually yields 1 fact and 8 people telling me how that fact will play out in the future.
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He is a coon
LOL! Yes but he’s cute.
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Ms. Lemon, … pardon me, I meant to say Mr. Lemon. He is nothing short of a phenotypical inversion of Bill O’Reilly for the sake of personal and professional aggrandizement.
“He is a coon, but he does regularly have on intelligent Black (Liberal) people who talk about more than just “Black” issues. That puts him leagues beyond anything else on US television, news-wise, outside of Trevor Noah and Roland Martin. But that is not saying much.” – Abagond
LOL, … Abagond, you are too much!
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The Daily Show’s take on CNN’s panel discussion format:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ILxcBnmzpo)
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@Abagond: I love The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and this was a good episode. I have come to know all the crazy talking heads on CNN. Angela Rye and Simone Sanders are my favorites. I can’t stand Paris Denard, that pathetic sunken place Uncle Tom, tap dancing and doing his Step and Fetch It act for Trump.
It really gets crazy when they start talking over each other and tempers get hot and sometimes it escalates into name calling. Keith Boykin and Paris Denard really had me cackling, that was pure comedy. Or when Symone Sanders or Angela Rye gives some racist or misogynist a good dressing down.
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Glad that at least one late night show has satirized CNN’s staged theatre format.
It is so annoying, as little news is actually presented.
CNN international has much less of this and is not so extreme.
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@ Mary
I love Angela Rye.
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A real quote from CNN (bolding mine):
Source:
(https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/cnn-poll-12-19-2019/h_1eddc57dbfcb2f156b6e42fa003058b8)
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That’s hilarious!
I wonder whether the real stats are reflected in that sidebar or the main article which lists something different.
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