CNN buzz

Searched and saw no thread on the buzziest piece on the internet yesterday - Tim Alberta’s long form in the Atlantic (free for now), after shadowing Chris Licht. The piece has already led to a partial defenestration of Licht by Zaslav, evil himself, but the piece reveals that was long in the works, not a result of this revelation.

I am not interested in Licht, only the larger issue of CNN’s role. Dan Drezner has captured my basic thoughts when I first read it. I will link to him. Link to the piece inside

CNN and the Inventory Problem


The deeper story, however, is to divine what the big takeaway should be from Licht’s tenure to date. Because as much as Licht f ed up CNN’s morning show and Trump’s town hall, it is worth remembering that the network was not exactly in a great place before he came on board. There was the CNN+ fiasco, there was Zucker’s inappropriate work relationship, and there was prime time anchor Christopher Cuomo pretending that ethics were not a big deal across a wide variety of behaviors. Just as Twitter was not in great shape when Elon Musk bought it, CNN was not in the pink of health when Licht came on board.



And here’s the problem for Licht and CNN: no one under the age of 75 will turn on CNN — or any cable news network for that mater — for fun. Younger generations will rely on social media to capture the lurid highlights of any cable news segment. Short of a real-time breaking news story, watching CNN is not on anyone’s to-do list. Licht’s ham-handed effort to cater to Fox News viewers has alienated the MSNBC demographic. And his attempt to woo those Fox watchers is bound to fail because those viewers do not want to watch the news, they want to hear reassuring conservative platitudes.



That said, Licht is correct in noting that viewers will turn on CNN in times of crisis — at least, I think he’s right. This means that one should view CNN as like inventory — something that is absolutely necessary in case of emergencies but otherwise operates as a deadweight loss.²Licht gets at this when he tells Alberta that it is fine if CNN is not profitable: “This is a reputational asset for the company. It is not a profit-growth driver,” Licht said. The trouble is that Licht can’t then define “reputational asset” to Alberta.

Licht’s problem is that every single thing he has done since taking over at CNN has devalued the network’s “break glass in case of emergency” value while adding zero to the fun side. It’s just a massive cluster


The way I thought of it was, no one has mismanaged CNN, resulting in losses. The world has changed. CNN is still trusted by nearly all, worldwide, in times of crisis, as even those who say they don’t trust CNN know better. But in non crisis times, younger types stick to social media and their phones, and conservatives want to be lied to - see this board and Conservatives actively want to believe only lies - Kevin Drum

So there is very little role for CNN outside of an active crisis. Then it’s invaluable. No smart management will change that reality and bring numbers back on a nightly basis.

 

Truth. Right there with you. Feel guilty about it, but...