Breaking news: Less breaking news on CNN

[dixiehack]

Since Election Day, I try to limit my national/world intake to scanning through Google News headlines to see if things are terrible or go-look-for-the-mushroom-cloud terrible. It's an unsteady detox at best.

 

[FileNotFound]

I pretty much went into Full Breakdown mode last night. It has caused me to wake up today and reassess a lot of things, including my news and social media consumption. Snap-solutions like deleting the apps are fine, but I have to figure out how to change some serious programming that is part of why I became a journalist in the first place. Looks like I'm gonna need some help for that.

 

[Cosmo]

Tuesday night was it for me. I can be informed enough through the WP's and NYT's daily newsletters. I'm done watching TV news for the foreseeable future though. Not good for my mental health.

 

[Readallover]

More details. CNN announces about 200 layoffs as it attempts to modernize business

 

[HanSenSE]

We cancelled our local print paper a couple of weeks ago. They wanted way too much for what they were providing.

 

[HanSenSE]

 

[maumann]

CNN has been circling the drain pretty much since before the AT&T deal, and perhaps even under AOL. If you decide making a profit is more important than making a newscast, you get what you deserve.

I feel bad for a number of really talented people in New York and Atlanta who got shafted along the way as the company changed presidents and ownership, with none of them having a concept of a plan. Instead, it's been a series of bad business decisions in an effort to chase ratings rather than news stories, create personalities rather than creative writing and production.

CNN's zenith was probably the first Gulf War. I remember sitting in the newsroom at KFBK in Sacramento when the scuds started hitting around Bernie Shaw and watching in amazement with the rest of the newsroom. As a journalist, you hope for one seminal moment in your career that launches you higher than you've ever thought possible. I think of Hurbert Morrison and the Hindenburg, Dan Rather and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or Al Michaels and the Miracle on Ice.

CNN was on the top of its game then. There's nothing really functioning like that now, where news came first and analysis was a distant second.

CNN is the watered-down Diet Coke left opened in the sun for a week version of itself. If it disappeared tomorrow, no one would notice.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

CNN's zenith was probably the first Gulf War. I remember sitting in the newsroom at KFBK in Sacramento when the scuds started hitting around Bernie Shaw and watching in amazement with the rest of the newsroom. As a journalist, you hope for one seminal moment in your career that launches you higher than you've ever thought possible. I think of Hurbert Morrison and the Hindenburg, Dan Rather and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or Al Michaels and the Miracle on Ice.

CNN was on the top of its game then. There's nothing really functioning like that now, where news came first and analysis was a distant second.

"Live from Baghdad" is a great movie on the subject, if you've not already seen it.

 

[swingline]

Especially when you can always find MASH, Andy Griffith, Gunsmoke or Bonanza.

Or Mom's lineup of The A-Team, The Fall Guy and Hawaii 5-0. If I don't keep an eye on her, she'll be watching Walker, Texas Ranger, and that shirt does not fly in my house.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Personally, after the election I came to the conclusion that this constant barrage of news was doing more harm than good to me. Canceled WaPo and Boston Globe subscriptions, stopped going to the politics thread on this website (which I was checking every 10 minutes, it seemed), and stopped reading Heather Cox Richardson. I kind of felt cheated: I had heard all these stories about how Kamala was reaping in over a billion dollars, HCR (through no fault of her own, she's just repeating what is happening) was putting forth the day's news as promising, etc., etc., and then that MF wins, and wins all seven swing states. Doesn't matter he won by a slim margin. He won.

I've wrung my hands for the last 10 years. So enough. I'll read a book, watch sports, play with the kids more. Maybe that is the wrong attitude to take because those who ignore this shirt can't be surprised when the train comes down the tracks out of control. But I needed a break. And from what I've read elsewhere, I'm not alone in that thinking.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

CNN has been circling the drain pretty much since before the AT&T deal, and perhaps even under AOL. If you decide making a profit is more important than making a newscast, you get what you deserve.

I feel bad for a number of really talented people in New York and Atlanta who got shafted along the way as the company changed presidents and ownership, with none of them having a concept of a plan. Instead, it's been a series of bad business decisions in an effort to chase ratings rather than news stories, create personalities rather than creative writing and production.

CNN's zenith was probably the first Gulf War. I remember sitting in the newsroom at KFBK in Sacramento when the scuds started hitting around Bernie Shaw and watching in amazement with the rest of the newsroom. As a journalist, you hope for one seminal moment in your career that launches you higher than you've ever thought possible. I think of Hurbert Morrison and the Hindenburg, Dan Rather and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or Al Michaels and the Miracle on Ice.

CNN was on the top of its game then. There's nothing really functioning like that now, where news came first and analysis was a distant second.

CNN is the watered-down Diet Coke left opened in the sun for a week version of itself. If it disappeared tomorrow, no one would notice.

I was just now days old when I realized/was reminded Arthur Kent was working for NBC when he was dubbed the Scud Stud. Would have bet everything I own he was on CNN. Also, dubbing war correspondents studs and selling trading cards from a war is probably the starting point for the descent we're enduring three-plus decades later.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I was just now days old when I realized/was reminded Arthur Kent was working for NBC when he was dubbed the Scud Stud. Would have bet everything I own he was on CNN. Also, dubbing war correspondents studs and selling trading cards from a war is probably the starting point for the descent we're enduring three-plus decades later.

Nah that was Bernard Shaw and Peter Arnett.