Maybe CNN should stop allowing their news reporters from starting their broadcast with an indictment of Trump BEFORE reporting the news.
Watching Anderson Cooper start his Thursday night broadcast with five minutes of why Trump is un-presidential before reporting any news is simply instigating Trump’s ire and strengthens his case about fake media. If someone’s attention span is 5 minutes long (15 minutes in Britain?), then he just lost his audience and has right-leaning supporters switching the channel. Maybe there is validation to the reports that CNN just wants to be a left-leaning network, rather than fair and impartial. At least there’s PBS and NPR.
I expect this from non-news broadcasts, more opinion shows, like Don Lemon, MSNBC Morning Joe and even Fox & Friends, but when you’re talking about major newscasts, you’re missing the point.
Imagine if Walter Kronkite came on before reporting the Kennedy assassination and said “well, you know, Kennedy is a womanizer, a bully and has gone out after his opponents with rage. But now he’s the news where he died”
or
“Going to space is folly — you should be focused more on earthbound issues but Kennedy once again has discarded his own party’s thoughts and gone on his own way. Kennedy was shot today”
No one would continue watching it – it’s NOT news if you add your own personal thoughts on it.
I’m not suggesting that Cooper not have his own opinion – but his show is NOT about his opinions. It’s about the news. If he brings people on that talk about their opinions, that’s another story. Chris Cuomo ends his show with his own thoughts – that makes sense but to START your newscast with that, is just disrespectful to ALL journalists who have gone before.
I get that Trump isn’t presidential. You could go back throughout the years and find examples of any and every president being unpresidential. Is Trump more unpresidential than others? Without a doubt – but that doesn’t excuse poor journalism.
CNN was supposed to be a NEWS network first and foremost. By having its primetime hosts start rather than end their shows with opinion removes that distinction from their name.