Friday, April 24, 2020

CNN is still CNN

Want journalism? Don't go to CNN or some channel with the letters N, B, C in it. TD
Jonathan Karl vs. Jim Acosta; One of them is a first-rate reporter.     "Washington journalists obviously think of themselves as a united front, working as one to oppose President Trump, his ideas, his policies, his employees, his associates, and especially his reelection campaign. They’re happy to promote one another, their supposed competitors, in the interest of their shared project of trying to destroy Trump. That’s why it’s so unusual for a prominent member of the D.C. media circle to break ranks and criticize #Resistance journalism. Let’s have some applause, then, for Jonathan Karl of ABC News for calling out the performative outrage of CNN’s absurd Jim Acosta.
     "Acosta’s Kardashian-plus preening is so nauseating that Karl expends several pages of his book Front Row at the Trump Show calmly laying out why Acostan antics are exactly what White House correspondents should not be doing. In a 2018 White House performance, Karl recalls, Acosta huffed at length about Trump’s “enemy of the people” jibe, telling the president’s press secretary, Sarah Sanders, “I think it would be a good thing” if Trump disavowed the insult because “I think we deserve that.” Karl notes drily that when Acosta left the room, hardly anyone noticed, since reporters leave briefings all the time and CNN’s seat is by the door anyway. Acosta later claimed that he left the room in protest, as if “reporter walks out of room” constitutes any more of a story than “reporter orders a club sandwich.”
     "Acosta obviously relishes the combative spirit of the age and has taken to pulling more stunts than Evel Knievel in order to increase his public profile, not to provide any useful info to the public. He is unabashedly an entertainer, not a conduit: He might as well be smashing watermelons or juggling flaming bowling pins. So after he flounced out of the room like Miss Piggy that day two years ago, his follow-up report, live from the White House was . . . to propose a public protest, with himself presumably twirling a baton at the front of it. In his exclusive report to the world, Acosta breathlessly said this:


I think maybe we should make some bumper stickers. Make some buttons, you know, maybe we should go out on Pennsylvania Avenue like these kids who chant “CNN sucks” and “fake news,” maybe we should go out, all journalists should go out on Pennsylvania Avenue and chant, “We’re not the enemy of the people,” because I’m tired of this.
 "Oh, were you tired, Jim? Because that’s not how it appeared." . . .

CNN Segment Shows Cuomo Emerging from ‘Weeks’ in Isolation Just Days after He Feuded with Biker In Hamptons

Sick: CNN's Bill Weir Touts Killer Corona 'Buying Some Time' on Global Warming
"The actual first cause and patient zero of coronavirus may be unknown, but CNN climate correspondent Bill Weir on Thursday's New Day had another hypothesis: climate denialism and industrialization. The cable journalist went even farther, offering an upside to the brutal and painful virus wreaking havoc on the world.
"While some on the left have touted the environmental benefits of economic shutdowns, Weir was worried they would not be enough, . . ."
STUDY: CNN Airs Least of Coronavirus Briefings, Network Skips 7 Hours Over Past Two Weeks
. . . "For six of the 14 briefings over the time period, CNN ignored Trump’s opening remarks, joining the briefing only after he had finished. Wolf Blitzer announced on April 6: “Once the experts start speaking, once the questions and answers begin, we’ll go back to that briefing.”
A week later, CNN’s John King offered this justification for ceasing the live coverage: “The briefing was breathtaking from beginning to when we dropped out and at times it bordered on dangerous.” The next day, an angry Jim Acosta declared “these briefings altogether are coming across like something out of ‘Baghdad Bob,’” with Trump “sounding very ‘Baghdad Bob’-like.' ”





No comments: