Hey, wouldn’t it be weird for a major news network to give a man found liable of sexual abuse a town hall to spew lies and hate unchecked, and then act like it’s completely normal and acceptable? That’s certainly what happened when CNN did a town hall with convicted sexual abuser and GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump earlier this week. Truly vile stuff, but what else do you expect from a disgraced former President under federal indictment who, by the way, has been found liable, in court, by a jury, for sexual abuse? Can’t stress that enough. Surely the first of many damning verdicts to come.
But that’s not why we’re here today. We’re here because of another vile white man who is ruining the very fabric of American society, but you might not know his name: Chris Licht, the CEO of CNN. He views this all as a ratings game because none of this affects him, really. (Yes, he is a white guy with a Wikipedia page. Was it that obvious?) Anyway, the morning after the disgraceful town hall, he actually congratulated the moderator, on a news network, for making the news. (Insert record scratch noise here.)
Excuse me, what? Am I in the worst version of Inception, ever? The job of the news is to not make the news, you cretin. The job of the news is to report the news factually so that people are educated and informed. Connie Chung would never.
Honestly, I want to be more outraged than I actually am. This is the natural conclusion of a 24-hour news cycle. I canceled my own access to these channels long ago (although I admit I still go to their websites because sometimes you want the quick top-level hit of what’s affecting the country without having to read the big words and more thorough deep-dives The New York Times gives you) because unless the country is actually in crisis—and not a manufactured crisis—there simply is just not that much news to spread out over a 24-hour cycle.
However, it’s clear these awful channels are extremely lucrative, so what’s an awful end-stage capitalistic society to do? Create the news itself. We’re living in hell, people. Don’t worry, though! Licht says he did a good job.
I’m not sure how America was served by this other than if Chris Licht is equating his own ratings to the public good. Also, I need to be really clear here: Conservatives are literally only 36% of the population of the country. This is not a 50/50 divide, people! However, since conservatives tend to be pale, male (and stale), they get equal if not more weight in our media discourse because of the obvious demographic reasons. (Look at who owns and runs media companies. Hi, Chris Licht!)
In the last Presidential election, Trump lost by a lot of votes (almost 7 million!) Like, where does he think the new voters will come from? Who is being served here other than Trump and Licht? What Licht did was hand Trump a nice little present at the expense of the entire country.
The job of the news is not to create more news. However, it’s clear CNN is not the news. It’s just a modern-day circus act, and it’s making this country worse.
(featured image: CNN)
