What the hell CNN

[Crossless2.0]

My take, CNN is about 25 percent news. The rest is speculation, entertainment, and posturing. Got to fill those 24hrs somehow and keep up ratings.

Cable news in general has proven to be such a disappointment. CNN has a global reach and all the resources needed to provide timely world news the likes of which we'd never before seen -- and, sadly, still haven't. If anything, Trump has pushed CNN over the cliff into collective hysteria. Yes, the ongoing investigations are crucially important and deserve a correspondingly significant chunk of airtime. But they're not the only goddamn thing going on in the world. Between that and CNN's breathless coverage of his stupid fucking tweets, you'd think they rest of the world had just disappeared as a courtesy to our national narcissism.

First-rate world news reporting and serious in-depth analysis of major issues . . . what a concept! I'll bet there is no end of 24-hour news cycles that could be filled with such significant work.

But -- oh! -- that costs money and takes real effort. Better to have the same rotating group of talking heads making precisely the same points they did last night and the day before, in between the important stuff: commercials.

I pick on CNN rather than Fox because I'm genuinely disappointed in the former in ways I never could be by the latter.

The News Hour on PBS -- yes, one hour -- routinely eats the cable news outlets' collective lunch. But they exist year to year at the mercy of congressional Republicans and are dependent on the generosity of viewer donations and the largesse of some non-profit and corporate grants. If the most fiscally conservative Republicans had their way, America's best news program would simply disappear.

[Edited to add]: I also admire Democracy Now: The War and Peace Report for its insistence on reporting and analyzing the news from a decidedly non-corporate-approved point of view. I love me some Amy Goodman, even when I don't entirely agree with her.