Even the 500,000 watching in primetime aren’t really watching it as much as they have it on in the background while they are doing something more worth their time. They want to stay connected to the world in case something big happens, but do it in a way that doesn’t require them to actually pay attention. CNN fills that role and since it’s part of the same package that carries reruns of the Andy Griffith Show, they don’t have to pay extra for it. That’s the so-called “Super Fans” they are hoping will pay 6$ a month for the same privilege. Yeah, that will work.
Years (Decades?) ago I would be on my computer with CNN’s Headline News in the background. At some point I noticed that all of the news segments were agitprop. If it was ‘Local News’ there was a Climate Change angle, if it was ‘Foreign New’ there was a Climate Change aspect, in short it was a “Global Warming 24/7” channel instead of an unbiased news provider. Tiresome…
At some point it got so bad that C-SPAN and live broadcasts of our congresscritters was less biased.
CNN? How about PBS?
Nova does a science documentary about research on the Type Ia supernova and Big Bang cosmology, and it could be a “drinking game” as to when they weave Climate Change into the script.
“OK, here comes the Global Warming Scolding in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . .”
I find your lack of faith disturbing… -D. Vader
Joke heard on Howie Carr’s Chump Line:
Q: What’s the difference between CNN and The Titanic?
A: The Titanic went down with all its anchors aboard.
The only time I’ve ever “watched” CNN was in airport terminals. Good to know I won’t have to endure that crap when I resume travel next year. What will airports show instead, local farm reports?
Infomercials featuring quack doctors and the health supplements they’ve formulated to fix everything that ails you.
So, same-same.
Nothing worse, IMO, than having to wait in one of those airport lounges, surrounded by women with screaming babies while CNN is being beamed into your brain.
C’mon man!
The babies scream in response to the air-pressure changes twisting their ear drums during the flight. The chorus doesn’t start up until you climb past the cumulous clouds marking the dew point-temperature altitude.
Even David Letterman was in on this when he was offering “Unwelcome mats” as a new consumer product.
One choice was, “We’re an Amway family.” If that didn’t keep visitors away from your front steps, the alternative choice was, “We watch CNN.” Dave thought this last joke suggested by his writers was especially funny.
They might change but CNN wont cease to exist. The propaganda value is too high. Maybe Musk will buy them.
They started off conservative, then went left. If Musk took them over not only could they give FOX some much needed competition, but it would give Musk some muscle in his fight with the Biden administration. Last I heard AT&T were looking for a buyer.
“Conservative”, no, not really. They started out trying to be respectable as a ‘just the facts, ma’am’ news source. There was a palpable sneer whenever TV News was mentioned by the “print journalists”
So-called journalists should take heed of the wisdom from the classic 1960 article, “Marketing Myopia”. Like the “railroad men” before them, they fail to understand what business they’re in and that is leading to their downfall.
Remember who founded CNN: Red Ted Turner. Jane Fonda didn’t turn him pinko, he was already there.
Musk has expressed a desire for straight news sources. He could turn CNN into straight news without opinion or editorializing through abusing the copy. There is a huge untapped market for straight news. But it would just be a distraction when Musk has more important things to worry about.
I’m less sure that is so than I would have been even two years ago. Elon wants to settle Mars to improve the odds that “the light of consciousness,” as he puts it, will survive long-term. But he isn’t going to get there if those infested with what Musk now calls “the Woke mind virus” succeed in completing their project of destroying the United States. Right now, I’d have to rate that as a far more dire threat to humanity’s future than a notional comet strike or inimical rogue AI, about which Musk has long since expressed concerns. Musk has proven quite willing to go full-tilt-boogie on projects, like Starlink, that may seem “distractions” from the Mars goals, but they all – including Tesla, The Boring Company and Neuralink – are part of a multi-faceted grand strategy. Perhaps Musk is coming to the conclusion that media needs to be part of that. I hope so.
He needs a Shotwell of journalism, then the project could grow on its own without as much personal oversight. Where would he find one?
And since all of his other endeavors have potential roles on Mars, how would journalism fit into that?
There will be media on Mars. Some practice in stiff-arming the Woke here Earthside would stand Musk in good stead down the road. Admittedly, the problem of keeping Wokeness out of Martian media – and everything else – will be made vastly easier by the fact that the pioneer spirit and the Woke spirit are pretty much polar opposites. No one who simultaneously craves safe spaces and wishes to conduct a Holy Inquisition is likely to sign on for emigration to Mars.
Where Musk could find a “media Shotwell” is, indeed, a key problem. Aspiring “press” moguls are not in short supply, but the most ambitious – and anti-Woke – of them are already CEOs of their own outlets.
What would make CNN interesting again is actual hard news. And have ‘local’ news desks at each major city in the US that revolve around the hour (at the same time during each hour of course) so you can pick up local news items in your home area. I really don’t care much what their anchors/commentators/propagandists think about me. Would that Elon take it over and fix it. Please! OTOH Elon has enough on his plate and I don’t want him to over-stress. We need him healthy. SpaceX/Starship/SuperHeavy is Job #1 IMHO.
Our local news sucks so much. Zero information on what happens in the state capitol or even in the next city over or even parts of town 20 minutes away from the studios.
The scripts all sound like they came from the national DNC even when they do cover something local.
There is money in it and it is ripe for new competition.
Even the 500,000 watching in primetime aren’t really watching it as much as they have it on in the background while they are doing something more worth their time. They want to stay connected to the world in case something big happens, but do it in a way that doesn’t require them to actually pay attention. CNN fills that role and since it’s part of the same package that carries reruns of the Andy Griffith Show, they don’t have to pay extra for it. That’s the so-called “Super Fans” they are hoping will pay 6$ a month for the same privilege. Yeah, that will work.
Years (Decades?) ago I would be on my computer with CNN’s Headline News in the background. At some point I noticed that all of the news segments were agitprop. If it was ‘Local News’ there was a Climate Change angle, if it was ‘Foreign New’ there was a Climate Change aspect, in short it was a “Global Warming 24/7” channel instead of an unbiased news provider. Tiresome…
At some point it got so bad that C-SPAN and live broadcasts of our congresscritters was less biased.
CNN? How about PBS?
Nova does a science documentary about research on the Type Ia supernova and Big Bang cosmology, and it could be a “drinking game” as to when they weave Climate Change into the script.
“OK, here comes the Global Warming Scolding in 5, 4, 3, 2 . . .”
I find your lack of faith disturbing… -D. Vader
Joke heard on Howie Carr’s Chump Line:
Q: What’s the difference between CNN and The Titanic?
A: The Titanic went down with all its anchors aboard.
The only time I’ve ever “watched” CNN was in airport terminals. Good to know I won’t have to endure that crap when I resume travel next year. What will airports show instead, local farm reports?
Infomercials featuring quack doctors and the health supplements they’ve formulated to fix everything that ails you.
So, same-same.
Nothing worse, IMO, than having to wait in one of those airport lounges, surrounded by women with screaming babies while CNN is being beamed into your brain.
C’mon man!
The babies scream in response to the air-pressure changes twisting their ear drums during the flight. The chorus doesn’t start up until you climb past the cumulous clouds marking the dew point-temperature altitude.
Even David Letterman was in on this when he was offering “Unwelcome mats” as a new consumer product.
One choice was, “We’re an Amway family.” If that didn’t keep visitors away from your front steps, the alternative choice was, “We watch CNN.” Dave thought this last joke suggested by his writers was especially funny.
They might change but CNN wont cease to exist. The propaganda value is too high. Maybe Musk will buy them.
They started off conservative, then went left. If Musk took them over not only could they give FOX some much needed competition, but it would give Musk some muscle in his fight with the Biden administration. Last I heard AT&T were looking for a buyer.
“Conservative”, no, not really. They started out trying to be respectable as a ‘just the facts, ma’am’ news source. There was a palpable sneer whenever TV News was mentioned by the “print journalists”
So-called journalists should take heed of the wisdom from the classic 1960 article, “Marketing Myopia”. Like the “railroad men” before them, they fail to understand what business they’re in and that is leading to their downfall.
https://vandymkting.typepad.com/files/hbr-july-aug-2004-marketing-myopia.pdf
Remember who founded CNN: Red Ted Turner. Jane Fonda didn’t turn him pinko, he was already there.
Musk has expressed a desire for straight news sources. He could turn CNN into straight news without opinion or editorializing through abusing the copy. There is a huge untapped market for straight news. But it would just be a distraction when Musk has more important things to worry about.
I’m less sure that is so than I would have been even two years ago. Elon wants to settle Mars to improve the odds that “the light of consciousness,” as he puts it, will survive long-term. But he isn’t going to get there if those infested with what Musk now calls “the Woke mind virus” succeed in completing their project of destroying the United States. Right now, I’d have to rate that as a far more dire threat to humanity’s future than a notional comet strike or inimical rogue AI, about which Musk has long since expressed concerns. Musk has proven quite willing to go full-tilt-boogie on projects, like Starlink, that may seem “distractions” from the Mars goals, but they all – including Tesla, The Boring Company and Neuralink – are part of a multi-faceted grand strategy. Perhaps Musk is coming to the conclusion that media needs to be part of that. I hope so.
He needs a Shotwell of journalism, then the project could grow on its own without as much personal oversight. Where would he find one?
And since all of his other endeavors have potential roles on Mars, how would journalism fit into that?
There will be media on Mars. Some practice in stiff-arming the Woke here Earthside would stand Musk in good stead down the road. Admittedly, the problem of keeping Wokeness out of Martian media – and everything else – will be made vastly easier by the fact that the pioneer spirit and the Woke spirit are pretty much polar opposites. No one who simultaneously craves safe spaces and wishes to conduct a Holy Inquisition is likely to sign on for emigration to Mars.
Where Musk could find a “media Shotwell” is, indeed, a key problem. Aspiring “press” moguls are not in short supply, but the most ambitious – and anti-Woke – of them are already CEOs of their own outlets.
What would make CNN interesting again is actual hard news. And have ‘local’ news desks at each major city in the US that revolve around the hour (at the same time during each hour of course) so you can pick up local news items in your home area. I really don’t care much what their anchors/commentators/propagandists think about me. Would that Elon take it over and fix it. Please! OTOH Elon has enough on his plate and I don’t want him to over-stress. We need him healthy. SpaceX/Starship/SuperHeavy is Job #1 IMHO.
Our local news sucks so much. Zero information on what happens in the state capitol or even in the next city over or even parts of town 20 minutes away from the studios.
The scripts all sound like they came from the national DNC even when they do cover something local.
There is money in it and it is ripe for new competition.