CNN launched on June 1, 1980, and changed the world. The competition for inclusion on a list of its 100 finest moments would be fierce, and picking the top 10 nearly impossible. The lowest moment in the history of the network is easy to spot. It just occurred. There is no moment when CNN more thoroughly debased itself, perverted the ethics of responsible journalism, or abused its audience more in the last 43 years. It was an incontestable triumph of expediency over principle and profit over judgement. When the debacle ended CEO Chris Licht delivered exhortations to his crew that were as detached from reality and as deluded as a speech from a fictional Captain Queeg or a real-life Donald Trump.
Sitting in my Silo (Anderson Cooper) drinking coffee and reading this. Great piece, Steve. My favorite line, “ CNN produced its first snuff film”. Brilliant.
Another fantastic piece. The Murrow quotes are remarkable, and am grateful now to know that he possessed Orwell-like insight.
Please, Chris Licht, Anderson Cooper, and the other defenders: the high dudgeon and pathetic rationalizations only magnify your broken moral and intellectual compass. The CNN spectacle wasn't politics or public service; it was a ratings-driven WWE-level love fest for a corrupt despot-wannabe and his addicted, addled, rage-and-fear-fueled cult.
Steve, your writing is my morning read, every day. Sometimes, actually many, many times, I want to comment but can't find the words. Today is one of those days. You leave me speechless.
Please don't ever stop writing. Your voice is so spot on, accurate. We need it.
Steve I did not watch it but from the snippets that I have seen it was exactly the kind of destructive piece of propaganda that we have all come to know as Maga bullshit.
What is to be done other than gird ourselves for the coming 17 months of campaigning for the '24 election as if it is life or death because it seems lime it is.
Hopefully DJT solidified those against him as he was at his worst and CNN at their newly found "Low" point.
No one could have watched that fake town hall and walked away in favor of voting Republican. Many may just say guck it and choose to not vote but to vote for that person and his minions?? Never
I am glad many more are finding their voice of outrage towards CNN. My wife called their "hotline" to complain and got a sterile, recorded response. Shows you they were prepared for the negative reaction. I want them to go bankrupt or at the very least fully become another faux FOX news channel which they truly are.
Agree 100%. On CNN’s decision fail its core mission to report news. You wrote about Murrow in London. I was thinking about the first Iraq war and CNN’s on-site reporting
Today’s CNN is closer to the Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land news outlet, where sensationalism is the goal, not news
Thanks Steve. You knew just where to go. Edward R. Murrow. He saw it all coming, but it's worse than he imagined. We are a nation built on greed and competition, and the mask is off. What good is left? The natural beauty? The goodness of many people? The democracy built by our founding fathers? TV has rotted us. And as for the corporate media--Anderson Cooper's nonsensical defense was the was final sticking in of the fork for me. An inherited fortune; a great education; an enlightened, open-minded environment from day one; and a member of the LGBTQ community, which is being targeted. I thought he'd resign. Instead, he gaslight his audience. Another in a long line of disappointments for me. With a few exceptions, corporate media does not produce news anymore that Hollywood produces art. In both cases, the bottom line drives the show.
There were German "journalists" that aided and abetted the rise of Hitler. CNN's disgraceful conduct is no different. CNN, for profit, is nurturing fascism. For CNN to caution is about remaining in our "silos" legitimatizes that fascism by implying Trumpism is simply an alternative political choice when in fact it is entirely incompatible with Madisonian democracy. CNN seems to believe that if a swath of the electorate likes vicious rights crushing autocracy then CNN's job is to provide it a platform. I am sure German journalists rationalized their coverage of Hitler's rise in precisely the same manner.
Yes CNN's fall to the depths of depravity with their hand selected audience of sycophants applauding a mentally ill monster who they are cheering on to turn American into an autocracy. CNN engineered this travesty solely for ratings and profit without any consideration to the damaging lies and calls to violence against individuals and democracy. The laughter and encouragement the audience gave to him as he belittled the host and the woman he had just been found guilty of sexually assaulting is proof that his millions of supporters are hungry for violence and brutality and the retribution he promises to deliver.
This is it - Murrow’s words - that coalesced my thinking and emotions this gloomy morning. That I am privileged to have lived in a time of Murrow with parents (z”l) who, tho I never asked nor learned why, insisted I, too young to grasp it all, watch Murrow’s broadcasts.
I didn’t watch the CNN debacle this week. And other than in airports, didn’t watch CNN ever so I know not their highlights. [Those who with Steve know, please list. I’m curious.]
News - hard news and analysis - with some arts, human interest thrown in - I had on PBS. This, what you wrote, Steve, made me realize why my discomfort now too with them as my trusted news source: the new anchors are both bright and engaging. The balance of stories seems a bit off. It is the ‘making of celebrities’ [relatable personalities? Was Murrow relatable?] by clearly a choice that is interfering with my perception of them - the NewsHour and co-anchors - and the news via PBS as my nonCNN or network source. (If not familiar, they both feature their often glamorous lives on social media, that seems at odds with news delivery. I am not the “market share” they want tho one I’d hope they’d want to retain. It does seem to align with what CNN did tho not to the same degree - yet??)
What would my parents say? Neither a college grad (WWII, young parents post-War, never time or resources) they were readers and watchers of real news.
We can’t return or can we to better? CNN set the tone. Here with your commentary, guests and community, I feel safer and informed.
News should not be a performance art but that was what happened at the CNN townhall by all accounts. My mind has been troubled for the past few days and I am having difficulty finding peace. Letting Trump rewrite history to a live audience is a massive mistake. He is incapable of telling the truth and lies spew out of his corrupt mouth like an open badly infected untreated sore. CNN could not have done more damage than they did by giving him a worldwide audience to spread his grievances and demented vision. I thought I was done with Trump but like a bad case of malaria he is again invading my thoughts with delirium. I hope and pray our salvation lies in the wisdom of our Justice system and they are building an iron trap case against this poor excuse for a human being.
Advertising dollars and the adverts we then had to tolerate were the price paid for newsrooms that answered to none (for the most part) but the news. The news business -- as it evolved here in America from newsprint to radio to TV -- was not to soil itself by selling itself for those advertising dollars. Read again Murrow’s words about 8 to 11 in the evening. That paid for us to have a Murrow or a Cronkite or a Huntley and Brinkley. Twenty-four-hour networks and websites that allow us all to fetishize our digital days with only what we want or what some algorithm has found for us means that this American, née world, population is moving away from a free exchange of ideas and exposure to to any sort of objective reality as quickly as it can. The news was never envisioned as the product itself! Sixty Minutes showed that news could be sold. CNN made a bet that people would tune in for the headlines on their schedules, not only at 6 p.m. or 11 p.m. The news business and news reporters had solemnity and purpose and a mission to inform, to shine light where darkness had fallen. If we are reading and writing here with Mr. Schmidt, we are our own news editors, looking for information and synthesizing what we find from the places and sources we have decided are deserving of our trust and can provide us with the headlines we need. When every town could support a newspaper, when the FCC put conditions and requirements on our airwaves, we all stood a chance that we could find a news source or two that curated enough reality that democracy could breathe, perhaps not easily, but enough to live. It gasps now. I constantly ponder how this information cacophony can be tuned so that we get what we need to make decisions as a body politic. I remain overwhelmed without an answer.
My life-long "Reagan Republican" parents warned that TV was going to "dumb down" America and unravel our societal fabric. I thought they were nuts. Now I realize social media (espec. Twitter, "Truth Social") are the same threat, as TV frantically tries to hang on to any viewer they can trick into watching. Click bait replaced the remote control.
One of America's former premiere networks is now a veritable Jerry Springer show, center ring of course. Did Chris Licht think the Fox viewers they pulled in just to see Trump were going to stay with them? They clicked off as soon as anyone called out his lies. How do they top this? "Kari Lake Tonight"?
When the fifth estate starts to crumble, our democracy is in real trouble.
We here did not watch CNN, with trump lies. We seen this bullshit from the entitled little man, sexual assaulter, propagandist for Putin, too many times. So over the Republican games. It's disgusting the way they bring the worst of people to represent the Wealthy. I'm pretty sure Congress has broken with the American People. Nothing to bring them up, just plug the holes of desperation in the country. Where's the humanity? Uneducated Red States to keep the classes separated, and hangry. Dumb and Dumber in the 60s, is what held me hostage, This old lady seen trump from the 70s on the screen gonna be the runner for President, I started my 101 into politics. It's a farce. Too many lies and gerrymandering, add trmp and we had a recipe for Hitler actions in America. We lost over a million Americans, due to his inability to see these Americans as he sees himself Human. trump is a Hitler reincarnated and he will continue to tear down the fabric of America.
I don't trust courts, any longer. I'm so disappointed in the so called leaders.
In the environment I grew up in, we slammed trump on Donahue tv for being a creep. I see we were right. Ahahaha hahaha what people won't do for cash on hand. I'd rather be poor than to be a phony, plenty scammers down here, you can see them coming.
Earn your way honestly and live to bring hope to the poorest among us. My take on living out my human existence. When you start off at the dirt level, you are always reminded of where you came from.
I believe in a free and fair election.
Unity by the people for the people.
Time to bring enmasse to the streets peacefully and united. Count me in, I'm practicing for a long walk.
Never knew we had so many cowards in charge till trump.
In the fragmented and perverse mediascape it is likely that not a single person who needs to read this will read this.
Sitting in my Silo (Anderson Cooper) drinking coffee and reading this. Great piece, Steve. My favorite line, “ CNN produced its first snuff film”. Brilliant.
Another fantastic piece. The Murrow quotes are remarkable, and am grateful now to know that he possessed Orwell-like insight.
Please, Chris Licht, Anderson Cooper, and the other defenders: the high dudgeon and pathetic rationalizations only magnify your broken moral and intellectual compass. The CNN spectacle wasn't politics or public service; it was a ratings-driven WWE-level love fest for a corrupt despot-wannabe and his addicted, addled, rage-and-fear-fueled cult.
Steve, your writing is my morning read, every day. Sometimes, actually many, many times, I want to comment but can't find the words. Today is one of those days. You leave me speechless.
Please don't ever stop writing. Your voice is so spot on, accurate. We need it.
May the country hear you.
Steve I did not watch it but from the snippets that I have seen it was exactly the kind of destructive piece of propaganda that we have all come to know as Maga bullshit.
What is to be done other than gird ourselves for the coming 17 months of campaigning for the '24 election as if it is life or death because it seems lime it is.
Hopefully DJT solidified those against him as he was at his worst and CNN at their newly found "Low" point.
No one could have watched that fake town hall and walked away in favor of voting Republican. Many may just say guck it and choose to not vote but to vote for that person and his minions?? Never
I am glad many more are finding their voice of outrage towards CNN. My wife called their "hotline" to complain and got a sterile, recorded response. Shows you they were prepared for the negative reaction. I want them to go bankrupt or at the very least fully become another faux FOX news channel which they truly are.
Thanks Steve once again
Agree 100%. On CNN’s decision fail its core mission to report news. You wrote about Murrow in London. I was thinking about the first Iraq war and CNN’s on-site reporting
Today’s CNN is closer to the Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land news outlet, where sensationalism is the goal, not news
Thanks Steve. You knew just where to go. Edward R. Murrow. He saw it all coming, but it's worse than he imagined. We are a nation built on greed and competition, and the mask is off. What good is left? The natural beauty? The goodness of many people? The democracy built by our founding fathers? TV has rotted us. And as for the corporate media--Anderson Cooper's nonsensical defense was the was final sticking in of the fork for me. An inherited fortune; a great education; an enlightened, open-minded environment from day one; and a member of the LGBTQ community, which is being targeted. I thought he'd resign. Instead, he gaslight his audience. Another in a long line of disappointments for me. With a few exceptions, corporate media does not produce news anymore that Hollywood produces art. In both cases, the bottom line drives the show.
There were German "journalists" that aided and abetted the rise of Hitler. CNN's disgraceful conduct is no different. CNN, for profit, is nurturing fascism. For CNN to caution is about remaining in our "silos" legitimatizes that fascism by implying Trumpism is simply an alternative political choice when in fact it is entirely incompatible with Madisonian democracy. CNN seems to believe that if a swath of the electorate likes vicious rights crushing autocracy then CNN's job is to provide it a platform. I am sure German journalists rationalized their coverage of Hitler's rise in precisely the same manner.
Yes CNN's fall to the depths of depravity with their hand selected audience of sycophants applauding a mentally ill monster who they are cheering on to turn American into an autocracy. CNN engineered this travesty solely for ratings and profit without any consideration to the damaging lies and calls to violence against individuals and democracy. The laughter and encouragement the audience gave to him as he belittled the host and the woman he had just been found guilty of sexually assaulting is proof that his millions of supporters are hungry for violence and brutality and the retribution he promises to deliver.
Steve your writing today would have made
Edward R Murrow & Walter Cronkite proud
Thank You for the truthful reporting…
Unless Americans wake up to this news
and work hard to save our country from
The despotic Authoritarian Dictatorship
We are Done as a Democracy Our USA
Needs Everyone to Vote!!! Ty Marsha
This is it - Murrow’s words - that coalesced my thinking and emotions this gloomy morning. That I am privileged to have lived in a time of Murrow with parents (z”l) who, tho I never asked nor learned why, insisted I, too young to grasp it all, watch Murrow’s broadcasts.
I didn’t watch the CNN debacle this week. And other than in airports, didn’t watch CNN ever so I know not their highlights. [Those who with Steve know, please list. I’m curious.]
News - hard news and analysis - with some arts, human interest thrown in - I had on PBS. This, what you wrote, Steve, made me realize why my discomfort now too with them as my trusted news source: the new anchors are both bright and engaging. The balance of stories seems a bit off. It is the ‘making of celebrities’ [relatable personalities? Was Murrow relatable?] by clearly a choice that is interfering with my perception of them - the NewsHour and co-anchors - and the news via PBS as my nonCNN or network source. (If not familiar, they both feature their often glamorous lives on social media, that seems at odds with news delivery. I am not the “market share” they want tho one I’d hope they’d want to retain. It does seem to align with what CNN did tho not to the same degree - yet??)
What would my parents say? Neither a college grad (WWII, young parents post-War, never time or resources) they were readers and watchers of real news.
We can’t return or can we to better? CNN set the tone. Here with your commentary, guests and community, I feel safer and informed.
News should not be a performance art but that was what happened at the CNN townhall by all accounts. My mind has been troubled for the past few days and I am having difficulty finding peace. Letting Trump rewrite history to a live audience is a massive mistake. He is incapable of telling the truth and lies spew out of his corrupt mouth like an open badly infected untreated sore. CNN could not have done more damage than they did by giving him a worldwide audience to spread his grievances and demented vision. I thought I was done with Trump but like a bad case of malaria he is again invading my thoughts with delirium. I hope and pray our salvation lies in the wisdom of our Justice system and they are building an iron trap case against this poor excuse for a human being.
Advertising dollars and the adverts we then had to tolerate were the price paid for newsrooms that answered to none (for the most part) but the news. The news business -- as it evolved here in America from newsprint to radio to TV -- was not to soil itself by selling itself for those advertising dollars. Read again Murrow’s words about 8 to 11 in the evening. That paid for us to have a Murrow or a Cronkite or a Huntley and Brinkley. Twenty-four-hour networks and websites that allow us all to fetishize our digital days with only what we want or what some algorithm has found for us means that this American, née world, population is moving away from a free exchange of ideas and exposure to to any sort of objective reality as quickly as it can. The news was never envisioned as the product itself! Sixty Minutes showed that news could be sold. CNN made a bet that people would tune in for the headlines on their schedules, not only at 6 p.m. or 11 p.m. The news business and news reporters had solemnity and purpose and a mission to inform, to shine light where darkness had fallen. If we are reading and writing here with Mr. Schmidt, we are our own news editors, looking for information and synthesizing what we find from the places and sources we have decided are deserving of our trust and can provide us with the headlines we need. When every town could support a newspaper, when the FCC put conditions and requirements on our airwaves, we all stood a chance that we could find a news source or two that curated enough reality that democracy could breathe, perhaps not easily, but enough to live. It gasps now. I constantly ponder how this information cacophony can be tuned so that we get what we need to make decisions as a body politic. I remain overwhelmed without an answer.
My life-long "Reagan Republican" parents warned that TV was going to "dumb down" America and unravel our societal fabric. I thought they were nuts. Now I realize social media (espec. Twitter, "Truth Social") are the same threat, as TV frantically tries to hang on to any viewer they can trick into watching. Click bait replaced the remote control.
One of America's former premiere networks is now a veritable Jerry Springer show, center ring of course. Did Chris Licht think the Fox viewers they pulled in just to see Trump were going to stay with them? They clicked off as soon as anyone called out his lies. How do they top this? "Kari Lake Tonight"?
When the fifth estate starts to crumble, our democracy is in real trouble.
Your best commentary yet. Thank you for the Edward R. Murrow quotes. He was a wise and prescient man.
We here did not watch CNN, with trump lies. We seen this bullshit from the entitled little man, sexual assaulter, propagandist for Putin, too many times. So over the Republican games. It's disgusting the way they bring the worst of people to represent the Wealthy. I'm pretty sure Congress has broken with the American People. Nothing to bring them up, just plug the holes of desperation in the country. Where's the humanity? Uneducated Red States to keep the classes separated, and hangry. Dumb and Dumber in the 60s, is what held me hostage, This old lady seen trump from the 70s on the screen gonna be the runner for President, I started my 101 into politics. It's a farce. Too many lies and gerrymandering, add trmp and we had a recipe for Hitler actions in America. We lost over a million Americans, due to his inability to see these Americans as he sees himself Human. trump is a Hitler reincarnated and he will continue to tear down the fabric of America.
I don't trust courts, any longer. I'm so disappointed in the so called leaders.
In the environment I grew up in, we slammed trump on Donahue tv for being a creep. I see we were right. Ahahaha hahaha what people won't do for cash on hand. I'd rather be poor than to be a phony, plenty scammers down here, you can see them coming.
Earn your way honestly and live to bring hope to the poorest among us. My take on living out my human existence. When you start off at the dirt level, you are always reminded of where you came from.
I believe in a free and fair election.
Unity by the people for the people.
Time to bring enmasse to the streets peacefully and united. Count me in, I'm practicing for a long walk.
Never knew we had so many cowards in charge till trump.