A couple of years ago, CNN was my “go to” station for news. Then something happened. CNN appeared to be trying too hard to be like Fox News sometimes and MSNBC at other times. Somewhere along the way, CNN lost its own identity, trying to emulate its competition. Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik has written an article on this very topic. It’s a good read.
The evening of Easter Sunday, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit Baja California. At 8 p.m. E.T., CNN had live coverage. MSNBC was running a special, Why Planes Crash. Fox News had host, preacher and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee talking about God, Easter and the Sandra Bullock movie The Blind Side.
Guess which of the three news channels is lowest rated in prime time. Hint: the one that was covering the news. In the first quarter of 2010, CNN lost nearly half its prime-time audience from a year ago. In February, CNN prime time even finished behind its little sibling, HLN. CNN, however, says that its profits continue to grow healthily and that it reaches more individual viewers per month than Fox or MSNBC. (See the 100 best TV shows of all time.)
But every media maven and his sister have been offering “What should CNN do?” advice: More hard news! More infotainment! Bring back Crossfire! Stay away from Crossfire!
TIME is CNN’s sister company in Time Warner — and as another big mainstream-media institution, we’re implicated in the same kind of problems. As TIME’s media critic, then, I offer my own “What should CNN do?” prescription, even if it hits close to home.
Part of CNN’s problem is that Fox News and MSNBC cater to the right and the left, respectively, cultivating faithful fans. There aren’t major earthquakes every day, but Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann can produce temblors on demand. It may not be the worst who are full of passionate intensity, as Yeats wrote, but passionate intensity sells on cable. A small partisan base is enough for big ratings; the mildly interested middle might rather watch Grey’s Anatomy. More>>>
