Two years ago, I began watching and reading the news regularly. My morning routine during my junior and senior years of high school was simple — wake up, make a couple Eggo waffles and coffee, sit down on my couch and turn on CNN’s “New Day.” After school, I’d do calculus problems with the background noise of Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper. However, my routine shifted to watching “Morning Joe” and listening to less and less of CNN. Their brand was simple — objective, non-partisan news. My take was simple — boring back and forth endless debates.
However, CNN seems to have done some soul searching post-election. Like many news organizations, they have tried to talk to the kinds of voters who felt neglected by “mainstream media” and politicians. This is evident in the new special program “The Messy Truth with Van Jones.” Jones is hosting a town hall forum where he invites liberals, moderates and conservatives to answer questions from everyday people. While CNN usually fails with this formula, Jones has been able to use the differing opinions to paint a Vermeer, rather than a Pollock, about American society.
For instance, Jones interviewed two survivors of the San Bernardino attack about their thoughts on Trump’s immigration ban. The survivors are friends, one who voted for Donald Trump and the other Hillary Clinton. Jones’ interview revealed how most terrorist attacks occur from home-grown extremists, rather than foreigners invading our country. It also proved that disagreements on politics and friendship aren’t mutually exclusive.
The only program I have consistently watched on CNN is “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” Zakaria attempts to take a holistic look on foreign policy, rather than getting bogged down in the most sensationalist news of the day. Zakaria has debated Edward Snowden, frequently hosted notable columnists like Paul Krugman of The New York Times and Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal and has interviewed Henry Kissinger and Barack Obama. You don’t book those kinds of guests without having a superb reputation.
CNN also hosted a debate between Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz, which reminisced the “coulda shoulda woulda” general election battle. The debate was about the future of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare (which by the way, they are the same thing). While the debate didn’t personally influence me, it was certainly more informative than the usual “Anderson Cooper 360” episode. No offense Cooper, I’m still a fan (of your hair). It also reminded me that as crazy as Trump is, I’m pretty sure he at least knows that a good portion of conservative economic theory is just a bunch of bologna. This is pretty clear when you consider actual data, and not theoretical graphs. Some Democrats might say, “I would take sane Ted Cruz over Donald Trump any day.” To which I would respond, “Remember the video where Cruz cooked bacon with a machine gun.” I’m not even joking, Google it. Don’t finish this article until you have watched that video in its entirety. But I digress.
Making fun of CNN is easy. According to this network, every single news event is all-caps “BREAKING NEWS.” That’s why Samantha Bee’s positive critique on the network was spot on last week.
“First, after briefly banning Kellyanne Conway for being a flaxen-haired fountain of lies, CNN let her back through the gates, straight into Jake Tapper’s cage. And they haven’t fed him this week. Bee then shows an edited clip of the numerous times Tapper accused the White House of “falsehoods.” Bee was “shocked” and said, “Wow, I didn’t think CNN let you use the F-word on the air … We’re just hoping you [CNN] wake up hungry tomorrow.”
I’m hoping, too, and I think their hunger is even growing. Clearly seen in CNN’s exclusive that U.S. investigators corroborate some aspects of the Russian dossier.
