In the incestuous echo chamber knowns as The Mainstream Media, financial results are secondary to what’s most important: Advancing the agenda of the political left. This objective is paramount, and if they need to sacrifice integrity and credibility to achieve it, they are more than willing to do so.
But at some point, the financial impact of that lost trustworthiness could bring even the most ardent leftist news outlet to their knees and make them rethink their priorities.
CNN has been hemorrhaging viewers and revenue for years now. In February, for instance, ratings showed a 69% drop in viewership over last year from the age group 25-54, the most critical demographic there is. And let’s not forget, CNN’s ratings last year were no great shakes either. Thirty years ago, CNN was the world leader in journalism. Today, practically the only viewers they can attract are the captive audiences they enjoy at airports and in hotel lobbies.
With all the recent scandals and turmoil CNN has experienced (Chris Cuomo, Jeff Zucker, and John Griffin, to name a few), the network will be bringing on a new CEO named in Chris Licht in two weeks, and Licht has a lot of work to do. After being bought by Discovery, the network’s new leadership is looking to change things up, and we may have seen evidence of that transformation in the following tweet from Licht yesterday:
May 2 will be my first official day in the office at CNN & my last day on Twitter. Twitter can be a great journalistic tool, but it can also skew what’s really important in the world. I’m logging off & looking forward to working with the incredible team at CNN.
— Chris Licht (@ChrisLicht) April 18, 2022
To fully appreciate this commitment from Licht, we need to first grasp the role Twitter plays in the mindset of leftwing journalism. Twitter isn’t merely the soapbox they stand on to have their voices heard, Twitter is where they go for affirmation. Twitter is the platform they use to ensure they’re properly aligned with the rest of the mind-numbed leftwing robots and talking heads and to make sure they’re properly regurgitating the Democratic Party’s talking points.
Twitter for a leftwing journalist is like narcotics to an addict, and Licht stepping away is akin to a junkie ditching his heroin kit.
The notion that CNN is going to be a centrist news outlet is a pipe dream. It’s not going to happen. But, what if they were to move even slightly to the right? Imagine if for their news segments they left their opinions and bias out of it. They could still have clowns like Don Lemon and Brian Stelter spewing their leftism during opinion segments – though if they really want to fix the ratings problem, they had better find some folks more likable than those two buffoons – but if their news programs were truly reporting news, they could stop the ratings bleed in short order.
Imagine, for instance, if in October 2020 CNN had not participated in the squashing of the Hunter Biden laptop story. If they had covered the story while providing their Democrat-favorable interpretations of it, they could have at least maintained some believability.
Perhaps that’s the direction Licht is taking CNN, perhaps not. We’ll soon find out. But for the good of the country, let’s hope Licht plans on reviving CNN’s integrity. He’s got a steep, uphill climb ahead of him, but America would be a lot better off if CNN had some true reliability again.
By Jordan Case
Jordan Case offers opinions from the unique perspective of both entrepreneur and parent and is a regular contributor to The Blue State Conservative. Jordan does not participate in the cesspool of social media.
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This story syndicated with permission from The Blue State Conservative