Scoop: CNN to dull its liberal edge

The left-right factual chasm is to be blamed on CNN? That’s a bit much.

turned into a tabloid over the years, full of advertisements

The “native ads” (ads styled the same way as content) on the front page of the website are indeed quite annoying - but that’s where it stops. It’s not like I (nor anyone, I hope) see one of those ads and the consequence is that I believe CNN has some position on mesothelioma lawsuits or how to moisturize my elbows.

and "my wife left me for bigfoot" stories.

I haven’t seen that. Can you think of any examples?

Still, I think a number of things can be said in CNN's favor (relative to Fox News) regarding its neutrality, or lack thereof. I simply don't see the same emphasis and extremism that occurs in the few opinion shows that they have. While on Fox, the steady drumbeat heard from the cavalcade of Carlson, Hannity, Watters, Pirro, Ingraham, appear with near-coordination in messaging so that no opportunities are missed to blast Democrats from every angle. Carlson's messaging is particularly extreme and opportunistic, arguing both that Biden should be doing more and yet asking why we should be involved in the Ukraine conflict at all since he finds that Russia's grievances have merit. The rare respectable Fox news hosts have been driven away in the past couple of years, such as Sheppard Smith and Chris Wallace. The latter is now employed at CNN, notably. I don't see this type of brain drain happening at CNN.

For a while, Fox News would hide behind a 'fair and balanced' tagline which they eventually had to abandon because it was obviously false. For example, recently I've seen Fox inviting guests on who waste no opportunity to attack Biden with either outright lies or misleading statements, such as how gas prices are suffering due to a ban on fracking on public land by the administration. In fact, the ban is only on new permits for fracking -- and the extent to which it would affect gas prices is being great exaggerated. Biden also comes under criticism for failing to provide all the arms that Zelenskyy wants to fight off the Russian invaders, as an indication of so-called 'weakness', yet in fact Biden has provided $700 million worth of arms including javelin missiles.

CNN (and Wash Post, etc.) was criticized over the Nick Sandmann affair when they played the video of the face-to-face confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial (1/18/2019) between the 16 year old Sandmann and Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist. While the video made it look like the boy (with a MAGA hat and perceived smirk) and his schoolmates were blocking Phillips and his fellow activists, it turns out that other videos available later described a different story that muddied the issues and that a third group of demonstrators were involved as well at an earlier point. Sandmann never apologized after Phillips said that he thought he was owed one in an interview. Public opinion was starting to come down on Sandmann's side especially considering that he was a minor. CNN ended up settling the lawsuit with Sandmann as did two other news outlets. Surely, CNN saw that a jury would have similar sympathy for such a young litigant and wisely settled. However, the Right then painted it as an example of a bias. CNN is more guilty of sloppy reporting perhaps, since the initial video spoke volumes owing to the similarly boorish behavior of those who wear the MAGA hat. Yet, CNN should have sought to secure more videos at the scene to get a fuller story.

CNN deserves credit for having policies and pushing out (or directly firing) those hosts who violate said policies. Chris Cuomo, while nonetheless stating that he would never be impartial when it came to his brother Andrew, was found by management to be in violation when he helped his brother navigate his sexual harassment and public relations crisis. Jeff Zucker and then Allison Gollust were fired when it was discovered that they were carrying on with a secret relationship.

While Fox News was the subject of a wave of sexual harassment lawsuits years ago, it only fired CEO Roger Ailes after nearly 20 women including Gretchen Carlson accused him of such. Bill O'Reilly was another firing but only after lawsuits were filed. Where are the internal investigations over there and why did it take a lawsuit? Hannity and Carlson have also been the target of lawsuits against Fox in 2020.

A: Tabloids.

Have you seen what the History Channel turned into? Or that environmental awareness channel, Animal Planet? Even PBS (the Petroleum Broadcast Service) has followed the trend.

CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and others, though, seem to function more like political party propaganda. Something like two flavors of Soviet-style TASS. Interestingly enough, Americans don't joke about TASS anymore.