CNN

CNN (Cable News Network) is the original of the United States' 24-hour cable news networks, and now sits along with MSNBC, Fox News, ABC et al. Launched in 1980 by Ted Turner, it is the home of much opinion designed to look like news. CNN got its mojo in the first Gulf War and has struggled ever since to make the news as compelling. Interestingly, CNN has a better reputation in a crisis (9/11, Katrina) than the other two, but that doesn't translate into viewership in the day-in/day-out of presidential politics.

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“”Fake News
—Donald Trump[1][2]
“”The fact that CNN is selling an election coffee table book says so very much.
—Drew Magary[3]
“”I know CNN has taken some knocks lately but the fact is, I admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story, just in case one of them happens to be accurate.
—Barack Obama

Since the late 2000s, much of the content on CNN consists of current events, misinformation, misinformation, more misinformation, opinion pundits (mostly Very Serious People), reruns, and other shit that not many people watch anyway (like seriously raising the possibility that Flight MH370 might have been swallowed up by a Black hole[4]), as CNN's ratings have continuously dropped.[5] CNN's leader Walter Isaacson tried to take CNN in a more conservative direction at one point. He even met with Republican congressional leaders at the time.

In 2017, CNN ignited controversy after blackmailing the Reddit user who made the gif of Donald Trump bodyslamming CNN into a forced apology under threat of doxxing.[6][7]

The network also pushes pseudoscience and quacks: For example, in late 2018, the channel invited Food Babe during the romaine lettuce outbreak.[8] It also pushes unsourced "studies" that should be taken with a grain of salt. It also took part in GMO fearmongering in 2014 when they published the "Ten Ways to avoid GMOs".[9] To their credit, they at least are not anti-vaccine.

Slant

Unlike Fox News Channel, with its right-wing imbalance, and MSNBC with its Democratic establishment imbalance, CNN appears as the "centrist" news source, albeit left of center whenever the Republican President makes it impossible for them to stay neutral. Pew Research found CNN to be the least biased of the three major cable news networks (with Fox and MSNBC having a much larger right and left wing slant, respectively). With some "left-leaning" commentators like Fareed Zakaria it has been accused of being slightly left-leaning. However, CNN's efforts to appear "balanced" has resulted in many cases where stories are reported with more of a right-leaning bias.[note 1]

However, after Trump's election, CNN's leftist tendencies are becoming more pronounced. Indeed, as of 2020, Media Bias/Fact Check, citing Pew Research, characterizes CNN as a left-wing media.[10] It is currently for sale.[11]

Controversies

Steubenville High School rape

CNN's Candy Crowley, Poppy Harlow and Paul Callan were criticized for being sympathetic towards the convicted rapists in the Steubenville High School rape case and for placing very little focus on the girl victim on March 17, 2013.[12] An online petition garnered thousands of signatures protesting the coverage and demanding an apology.[13] CNN also revealed the name of the 16-year-old victim. This practice is against the Associated Press guidelines for coverage.[14]

gollark: In theory you could get better efficiency out of dictatorial central planning, but it's a hard computational problem and has various practical issues beyond that.
gollark: I am personally fairly happy with exchanging money for goods and services.
gollark: Unlike for, say, mobile data plans, where the scarcity is completely artificial because the limited resource is bitrate and not total transfer. I'm not sure how that happened.
gollark: Water being paid for makes sense, as it disincentives using tons of it unnecessarily, and incentivises production and transportation as needed. Although I think most consumer water plans are just flat monthly rates.
gollark: It won't be in, say, space facilities.

Notes
  1. Remember that this was the station that did employ Lou Dobbs, Tucker Carlson, Erick Erickson, Glenn Beck, Robert Novak, Rowland Evans, Kate O'Beirne S. E. Cupp and Newt Gingrich on the air.

References
  1. Donald Trump on twitter, 5:30 am, 27 June 2017
  2. Donald Trump on Twitter, 5:45 pm, 27 June 2017
  3. Magary, "CNN's Jeff Zucker Thinks This is All a Game", GQ 4.5.17.
  4. Gawker.com: archive.is, web.archive.org
  5. CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings, The New York Times, 29 March 2010
  6. CNN criticised for seemingly threatening to dox Reddit user behind Trump's wrestling video, Business Insider Australia
  7. How CNN found the Reddit user behind the Trump wrestling GIF, CNN Politics
  8. CNN Lets 'Food Babe' Spout Pseudoscience on Lettuce Outbreak The Daily Beast
  9. CNN’s irresponsible article on ’10 ways to avoid GMOs’–No, GMOs are not unsafe Genetic Literacy Project
  10. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/cnn/
  11. https://bongino.com/att-reportedly-looking-to-sell-cnn/
  12. "CNN’s Steubenville Coverage Focuses On Effect Rape Trial Will Have On Rapists, Not Victim". Huffington Post. 2017.
  13. "CNN’s Steubenville Rape Coverage Draws Petition Demanding Apology". Huffington Post. 2017.
  14. "CNN, Fox News, MSNBC Air Name Of Steubenville Rape Victim". Huffington Post. 2017.
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