(Apologies for replying to myself; I hit send prematurely). I keep seeing this news categorized as part of WBD’s attempt to move CNN to the “middle”. Maybe, though, as a resident of the “left” it does not really feel that way to me. CNN is a couple of things, some bad, some good, but none particularly liberal.
They have been very personality driven, which includes opinion. To the extent that Licht and his masters are trying to wring that out of their newscasts, that would be good IMO. Anderson a Cooper is probably their best asset, yet I find him almost unwatchable given his history of making major stories about himself. Less if that please. Over the last decade or so they have not so much been liberal as willing to push back against Trump. As we have seen, challenging Trump does not make you a liberal. In the Zucker era though, it did reek of opportunism, as Trump outrage made for good ratings (something Trump himself is proud of). Stelter gets accused of this a lot, and is maybe guilty of it some significant though still minor fraction of the time. I can see the value in trying to start with a clean slate, getting rid of voices that were too associated with a kind of self promoting anti-Trumpism so that the critical and skeptical journalistic voice, cutting in all directions equally, can more credibility come through. If that is what Licht is up to, then fine. But if Licht/Zaz are on a mission to de-controversialize CNN, to rid their network of voices perceived by the Trump Right to be biased against them, then we are seeing the worst nightmare of corporate, Stock Market culture sucking the substance and power out of any attempt to do News. In this sense, the bigger news is not the firing of Stelter, but the cancellation of Reliable Sources. In an age in which television news is dominated by what goes on at Fox, a Media Beat will inevitably lead to a critical eye cast on conservative media (liberal media too, though I doubt Zaz and his Wall Street pals sweat that part very much). Of course, in the immediate climate, a Media Beat will almost certainly be casting a critical eye on Zaslov and WBD itself. The willingness and ability to cast that self critical glance is one of the definitions of credible journalism. If Licht schedules a new Media show and names a new correspondent to that Beat with full portfolio, then I will take all this a step in a positive direction. If what follows is silence in the coverage of the media, then it will signal something very ugly. There is something worse than the histrionic, self indulgent personality shit show that we have been exposed to at CNN for ten years, and it is the well behaved, inoffensive propaganda of the corporate shill. On Thu, 18 Aug 2022 at 3:43 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > “CNN’s chief media correspondent Brian Stelter is leaving the company, and > the network will cancel the 30-year-old weekly media news show that he has > hosted since 2013.Sunday’s episode of “Reliable Sources” will be the last… > The cancellation news, which was first reported by NPR, is the first major > programming shake-up under the management of new network boss Chris Licht.” > > > > https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/08/18/brian-stelter-cnn-reliable-sources-licht/ > -- > Sent from Gmail Mobile > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYJDN5FH_P3pJdCCSEZacA9LLJunw3OHXZgHEaUUpkVW-g%40mail.gmail.com.
