Opinion: CNN Has Lost Its Way

by Jeff McCall

This is an excerpt from an opinion article McCall wrote for The Hill. McCall (@Prof_McCall) is a professor of communication at DePauw University.

Even with the occasional ratings bump created by frenzied coverage of President Trump's adulterous romps, CNN struggles to find an audience.

Anderson Cooper normally gathers just over a million viewers per night for his two-hour prime time show. That’s almost a half million viewers fewer than disgraced anchor Brian Williams can generate for his 11 p.m. newscast on location from Siberia on MSNBC.

CNN wants to be “the most trusted name in news,” and likes to suggest it is on the objective, high road compared to more partisan competitors at MSNBC and Fox News Channel. News consumers who are political moderates or right-leaning, however, have a hard time buying that promotional line.

CNN President Jeff Zucker blasted FNC recently at a journalism conference in New York, calling his cable nemesis “a pure propaganda machine.” FNC’s prime time programming is no doubt opinion driven and broadly defends the White House, but Zucker’s ratings envy rant overlooks solid journalism being done at FNC by anchor/reporters such as Bret Baier, Shannon Bream, Shepherd Smith and others. Zucker would make better use of his time focusing on the content of his own channel.

CNN’s new strategy to boost its lagging prime time is to slot ratings-challenged morning show host Chris Cuomo to take over the 9 p.m. hour of Cooper’s current two-hour show. Once that switch is made, CNN will have back-to-back evening anchors representing elite, east coast, powerful families. Yet, CNN will still wonder why working class viewers and people in the heartland can’t relate to its on-air talent.

It is hard to imagine that Cuomo can lure viewers who just want real news, given the anti-administration tone he has generated during his morning show. And let’s face it, the real Trump haters will be watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC at 9 p.m. Thus, CNN builds its own case for the old adage, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”