Ok, I stole the title from The Daily Show but “yes we can” originated with Caesar Chavez so deal with it.
Unfortunately opinion cable news ratings score higher than informative cable news. It is no secret that I nibble from the left of center of the table. Occasionally I watch FOX news for the pure entertainment value, I know there is no educational value in it, it’s sort of like zonking out to reality TV. My political sentiment lies with MSNBC, the only problem is I am not spending time (as precious as it is) watching a talking head espouse what I already believe when I could be binge watching Lilyhammer.
I watch the NY Times of cable news, CNN. But lately it has become painful to watch. Jeff Zucker, since early last year, the President of the news network was brought on to resuscitate a once proud news media that has been tanking in the ratings. Recently he has been tinkering with the news station by focusing on a single event like the Boston Marathon bombings last year, the crisis in Ukraine and now the disappearance of Flight 370.
Initially the ratings soared but after 4 weeks of no plane, interest is dropping. Meanwhile we get a smattering of Ukraine news and a mudslide story here or there. That’s it! Really? Nothing form Syria? Central African Republic? Afghanistan? China? I would love to use a myriad of metaphors from the missing plane relating to CNN’s ratings but I resist in the name of good taste.
I get it, one issue cuts down drastically on your budget, news crews center on one location and there is just so much footage you can use, so talking heads that cost nothing serves up valuable filler.
When it comes to that age old conflict of entertainment vs. public service in the form of information, the budgets of T.V. news were always sacrosanct. FOX news can draw on Rupert Murdochs vast wealth of resources, his personal fortune, FOX entertainment and FOX sports. MSNBC has protection from the NBC network. Whose watching out for CNN? which because it is information and not opinion demands a higher budget; even Ted Turner is no longer providing sugar daddy services.
So do we just kill the beast and put it out of it’s misery? And what would replace it? PBS? (how ironic considering their chronic budget woes), or maybe this will be the resurgence of the traditional network news departments? Or even, gulp, print.
Jeff Zucker’s version of CNN is news imitating reality TV, thus the marketing of a downed plane as a prequel to “Lost” .
And the beautiful, smart coterie of correspondents Zucker has assembled. Maybe we could change the name from CNN to MNN (Maxim News Network) Zucker could hire Scarlett Johansson to be the voice over for “This is MNN”.
“Breaking news” is not a search team getting ready on day 54 to embark on that days reconnaissance of a missing plane.
“Breaking news” is “there’s a missing plane.”
I’m not even sure day 54 is news.
It’s just breaking.