"Asking the HARD questions! Keeping THEM honest!" bleats CNN ad

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

So sickening. Where was all this swaggering bravado and journalistic brio when we really needed it, while we were being eavesdropped on and having our Constitution dismantled? (It was an ad for Anderson Cooper, by the way)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I quit CNN

when they hired Glenn Beck. I figured they were on a downward spiral, and I wasn't going to sit around and watch.

Don't miss them at all, and now Beck is at Fox.

Try MSNBC. Or just listening to music.

[Romulox]

2. Isn't CNN controlled by a Saudi prince? Not terribly independent. nt

[WI_DEM]

3. hardy, har-har...when did they ever ask Bush the hard questions?

[wryter2000]

5. Well, there was this one

"Mr. President, are you more proud of the fact that you kept us safe for 8 years or the fact that you eliminated Saddam's WMDs?" Bush really had to think a while about that one.

[mediaman007]

4. CNN/FOX blocked on my cable service since August 2004.

I should have done it sooner.

[backscatter712]

6. Cancelled my cable. CNN and FAUX Noise can stuff it.

99% of what was on cable was crap anyways, and Qwest had faster internet with their new VDSL service in the Denver area.

Buh-bye, CNN!

[arcadian]

7. Hard questions for Bush: "Do you own a lumber yard?"

Sickening mainstream media.

[lxlxlxl]

8. Agreed...

Sickening doesn't really capture it does it? CNN is really the voice of the dumb and 'independent'/unattached. Fox is the voice of the passionately ignorant who hide behind 'patriotism' as a knee jerk reflex. It is all about them, and it scares me to think they are responsible for showing the world what America thinks about America, or that they define popular discourse.

What recourse do we have? Nothing. Every mature adult that turns off cable news means nothing when entire generations are encountering cable news as a 'normal' way for people to learn about what is going on in the world.

Efforts like Channel One that pumps dumbed-down cable news to high school students looks much more suspicious doesnt it?

I no longer think there is any top-down decision making that determines the tone and reporting, and that it is more about structure/material/profits -- material realities -- that makes CNN and FOX and TV in general what it is now. Cable news is the perfect example of how capitalism creates 'race to the bottom' dynamics in order to function.

The use of "ireports" is basically a copout for budgeting purposes to not do real reporting, and almost ensures the coarsening of discourse by allowing people with no credibility or responsibility in approaching issues to cover serious matters. It's a self generating cycle where they can get an ignorant opinion, and generate easy discourse about said ignorant opinion on the cheap (see talk radio and outrage bullet points of the day)

[rucky]

9. Who's keeping CNN honest?

Sorry, cable news, you lost all your credibility over the last 8 years.

[Orsino]

10. Big Media will be rediscovering journalism in the next few weeks.

Of course, they'll be diluting it with their usual toadying to money, but they won't be acting so timid anymore.