{"id":512392,"date":"2021-05-15T20:50:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T00:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=512392"},"modified":"2021-05-15T20:50:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-16T00:50:58","slug":"can-partisanship-and-profanity-save-cnn-from-its-ratings-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/can-partisanship-and-profanity-save-cnn-from-its-ratings-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Partisanship And Profanity Save CNN From Its Ratings Collapse?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcan-partisanship-and-profanity-save-cnn-from-its-ratings-collapse%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=512392&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1207243307-1200x800-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>CNN has changed dramatically since it went on the air in 1980. Back then, it covered news.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post seems to labor under the delusion that it still does. In what was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/media\/cnn-opinionated-emotional-zucker\/2021\/05\/11\/5f32eb38-7f92-11eb-81db-b02f0398f49a_story.html\">presented<\/a> as a hard news story, the paper claimed that CNN only recently abandoned cable news\u2019 \u201cindustry-wide standards of impartiality\u201d to become more \u201cauthentic.\u201d Reporter Jeremy Barr shoehorned that assumption into the headline, \u201cThe new CNN is more opinionated and emotional. Can it still be \u2018the most trusted name in news?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"10.396946564885\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Under network president Jeff Zucker, CNN\u2019s once studiously neutral team now call out politicians, share their feelings and occasionally cry on air. It doesn\u2019t seem to hurt ratings. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RCTBBnyxV3\">https:\/\/t.co\/RCTBBnyxV3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/washingtonpost\/status\/1392482652620480513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 12, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Applying the same level of sophistication and misguided assumptions could produce a question like, \u201cSanta Claus has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/32903-santa-used-to-be-skinny-why-he-gained-weight.html\">gained<\/a> so much weight. Can he still make it around the world in one night?\u201d Yet Barr, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jeremymbarr\/status\/1392527278589026304\">boasted<\/a> online, \u201cI spent about two months tracing the evolution of CNN over the last two decades, talking with anchors from different eras and finally speaking with network president Jeff Zucker about encouraging his on-air personalities to be more \u2018real\u2019 and \u2018human.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"9.819018404908\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I spent about two months tracing the evolution of CNN over the last two decades, talking with anchors from different eras and finally speaking with network president Jeff Zucker about encouraging his on-air personalities to be more \u201creal\u201d and \u201chuman.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TOHPt5bIgc\">https:\/\/t.co\/TOHPt5bIgc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jeremymbarr\/status\/1392527278589026304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 12, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Barr admitted that he couldn\u2019t find any \u201cobvious moment when CNN pivoted away from\u201d its alleged \u201cstudiously neutral impartiality.\u201d But ultimately, he traced CNN\u2019s change to the beginning of Jeffrey Zucker\u2019s tenure with the company \u2026 in 2012. Zucker let the anchors begin crying and exclaiming profanity on the air.<\/p>\n<p>True, Barr <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stamfordadvocate.com\/news\/article\/The-new-CNN-is-more-opinionated-and-emotional-16171187.php\">confessed<\/a>, \u201cto some ears, and during some stories, CNN\u2019s new emotional rawness can sound like bias.\u201d But, he concluded, you can\u2019t argue with success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[W]hile some viewers may miss the old strait-laced, just-the-facts CNN, the new strategy seems to be working,\u201d Barr wrote. \u201cIn 2020, an extremely newsy year, it attracted its largest audience in its 40-year history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Actually, Barr blew the most verifiable fact of the story: CNN\u2019s largest audience came in January 2021. Is he right that viewers rewarded CNN for shedding its pretense of objectivity and embracing the anchors\u2019 \u201cauthenticity?\u201d For that matter, was CNN ever \u201cthe most trusted name in news?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like most subjects, which news source the public trusts depends on <em>which<\/em> public you ask. A YouGov poll last June <a href=\"https:\/\/today.yougov.com\/topics\/media\/articles-reports\/2020\/06\/18\/trust-news-republican-democrat-poll\">found<\/a> the majority (57%) of Republicans trusted only one news outlet: Fox News. Other media that posted respectable numbers include the Wall Street Journal and One America News Network (OANN). Rounding out the bottom were The Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC, trusted by about one in ten conservatives.<\/p>\n<p>But among Democrats, The Washington Post, CNN, and The New York Times held a virtual three-way tie for first place, followed closely by MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal. So, Barr didn\u2019t misstate the facts; he just told us that he\u2019s a Democrat \u2014 which should have been clear based on his position as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/people\/jeremy-barr\/\">reporter<\/a> for The Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>But Barr reads CNN\u2019s ratings history backwards. During its heyday as a putatively down-the-middle news organization, CNN ruled the airwaves as the first 24-hour cable news channel. The pioneering experiment was so successful that, two years later, it spawned Headline News.<\/p>\n<p>But while CNN\u2019s transmogrification into a shrill, hyper-partisan mouthpiece went into overdrive during the Trump years, it had been set in motion virtually from the outset by its Leftist founder, Ted Turner.<\/p>\n<p>CNN regularly whitewashed totalitarians and terrorists. During her stint at CNN, Connie Chung noted that the Islamic terrorist group Hamas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mrc.org\/profiles-bias\/connie-chung-cnns-new-prime-time-star\">preferred<\/a> to be called \u201cfreedom fighters.\u201d Similarly, CNN insisted in 2002 that Fidel Castro had made Cuba a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mrc.org\/special-reports\/fidels-flatterers\">success<\/a>\u201d where \u201ceveryone has access\u201d to healthcare. In reality, it was (and is) a racist, repressive, Marxist state <a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/the-myth-of-cubas-glorious-health-care-system\/\">where<\/a> \u201cthe best\u00a0clinics and hospitals only served political elites\u201d and basic medicines like aspirin and antibiotics can only be had on the black market.<\/p>\n<p>The network\u2019s domestic coverage was also so biased that, by 1992, conservatives dubbed CNN the \u201cClinton News Network.\u201d During the that year\u2019s Democratic National Convention, CNN didn\u2019t label a single speaker \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/archive.mrc.org\/books\/identifybias.asp\">far-Left<\/a>\u201d \u2014 including former California Governor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?27116-1\/gov-jerry-brown-1992-convention-remarks\">Jerry Brown<\/a> and his assistant\/donor <a href=\"https:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2008\/04\/obama%E2%80%99s-greenbacks-from-code-pink\/\">Jodie Evans<\/a>, who once <a href=\"https:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2008\/06\/obamas-bundler-osamas-enabler\/\">asked<\/a>, \u201cWhy is being a Communist anti-American?\u201d But at the Republican convention in Houston, CNN described ex-Education Secretary and Drug Czar William J. Bennett \u2014 a former Democrat and lifelong civil rights advocate \u2014 a \u201cvery hard, far-Right conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, CNN \u2014 like the rest of the legacy media \u2014 simply grew more comfortable shedding the pretense of objectivity, professionalism, and civility. Witness Don Lemon, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/watch-cnn-mocks-trump-supporters-as-stupid-rednecks-who-cant-read-spell\">laughed<\/a> himself to tears as his guests called the 63 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump credulous rubes who can\u2019t spell. Or Christiane Amanpour, who compared the Trump administration to a four-year-long <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/watch-cnn-runs-segment-comparing-trump-to-nazis-purging-jews\">Kristallnacht<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true that Jeffrey Zucker had a heavy hand in its transformation, but it\u2019s not clear how much of these performances are \u201cauthentic.\u201d Undercover footage released by Project Veritas shows Zucker setting the day\u2019s news agenda, telling reporters what to cover and how to cover it. \u201cStay very focused on impeachment,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/breaking-james-okeefe-crashes-cnn-daily-call-with-jeff-zucker-reveals-months-of-recordings\">said<\/a>. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/limbaugh-project-veritas-strips-cnn-naked\">Lean into<\/a>\u201d the idea that Donald Trump \u201cmaybe is on the after-effects of steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>True, CNN had the best month of its existence in January 2021 \u2014 because it struck gold on a single day: January 6. Its saturation coverage of the Capitol riot drew a reported <a href=\"https:\/\/cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com\/2021\/01\/07\/yesterday-was-cnns-most-watched-day-in-history\/\">5.2 million<\/a> viewers, the largest audience in its 41-year history. For once, it outperformed Fox News.<\/p>\n<p>But CNN\u2019s modest collection of ratings victories \u2014 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OXLfHJ6fIJo\">one in a row<\/a>\u201d \u2014 follows a losing streak rivaled only by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtongenerals.com\/\">Washington Generals<\/a>. Fox News administered a continuous drubbing in the ratings boxes of Nielsen families coast to coast for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-fox-news-ratings\/fox-news-marks-19-year-u-s-ratings-streak-cnn-sets-record-in-january-idUSKBN2A2351\">19 straight years<\/a>. Even its slogan, \u201cFair and Balanced,\u201d resonated with viewers long conscious of CNN\u2019s bias. Shortly after 9\/11, FNC overtook CNN in the ratings and never looked back, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.journalism.org\/numbers\/cable-news-prime-time-viewership\/\">this chart<\/a> from the Pew Research Center illustrates.<\/p>\n<p>By 2019, when Fox News and MSNBC <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2019\/12\/cable-ratings-2019-list-fox-news-total-viewers-espn-18-49-demo-1202817561\/\">rated<\/a> as the top two networks on basic cable, CNN came in fourteenth \u2014 behind TLC, A&#038;E, and Investigation Discovery, and just a notch ahead of the Food Network.<\/p>\n<p>And the network\u2019s brief moment in the sun came to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-fox-news-ratings\/fox-news-marks-19-year-u-s-ratings-streak-cnn-sets-record-in-january-idUSKBN2A2351\">abrupt end<\/a> after January 20, when CNN lost its greatest foil and gained a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/4-reasons-media-ratings-have-plunged-since-joe-bidens-inauguration\">ratings albatross named Joe Biden<\/a>. CNN\u2019s audience <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/media\/551210-tv-news-ratings-online-readership-plunge-during-bidens-first-100-days?rl=1\">collapsed<\/a> from 1.2 million viewers a day to 749,000 by late April. Last Friday, not a single CNN show attracted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/cnns-ratings-are-plummeting-post-trump-more-than-two-thirds-of-the-audience-gone\">900,000<\/a> viewers.<\/p>\n<p>With another seven months of success like that, CNN won\u2019t exist at all. But its journalistic integrity died long ago.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ben Johnson is the Media Reporter at The Daily Wire.\u00a0He previously worked at the Acton Institute, FrontPage Magazine, and LifeSiteNews. He\u2019s the author of three books, including\u00a0<\/em>Party of Defeat<em>\u00a0(2008, with David Horowitz).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CNN has changed dramatically since it went on the air in 1980. Back then, it covered news.The Washington Post seems to labor under the delusion that it still does. In &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278232,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1207243307-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Can Partisanship And Profanity Save CNN From Its Ratings Collapse?","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1207243307-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Can Partisanship And Profanity Save CNN From Its Ratings Collapse?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}