Thursday, July 28, 2011

CNN might try something different like playing it straight



CNN/Time Warner seems to be undergoing a nervous breakdown as we speak. The US might default on its debt sinking the whole world into Armageddon, the banks would melt, and the earth will open up at Wall Street and start swallowing up the United States. It brings to mind a little of coverage that proceeded the US taxpayers writing the banks a blank check, with a suggestion attached to it that the banks should pay us back if they felt like it. One wonders what role CNN is actually playing in these crises: someone who reports them or someone who helps create them.

One only wishes that CNN brought the same sense of urgency when it came to their prolonged unemployed viewers having their unemployment checks cut off. Or when their elderly viewers had their monthly income threatened but when that happened you were much more likely to get cold numerical analysis of the best way to “fix” the economy, from the most trusted name in news, and less likely to get hyperbole. One has to wonder at what point CNN’s business side has leaked into its news gathering division making its coverage nearly totally self-serving.

Here’s a suggestion for CNN try playing it straight. Report what both sides are saying. Then report the drama as it really happens and not as you imagine it would happen. As a matter of fact that’s probably good advice for the media in general and it would hold up in any event. The author apologizes that he has been on a cruise with CNN being one of the few channels he gets. At least he is thankful he does not get Fox as that would suggest he has not lead a virtuous life

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