CNN Minus

You may have noticed that I have refrained from commenting on some of the most talked-about stories in the news in the past few weeks - nothing about mass shootings, no commentary about the border crisis, and not even a mention of the leak of classified documents from that kid in Massachusetts.  The main reason for this is that I don't feel like I either know enough of or have proper insight to such stories.  I don't think there's anything I can add to them and, besides, it's much too depressing to try to keep up with the latest mass shooting in America.

On the lighter side of the news ,though, I can't resist to comment further on the mayhem at CNN, which is the lighter side of the news.

CNN seems to be in a state of flux as it tries to navigate between its its coverage of the news and its various special presentations.  The flap over Donald Trump's "town hall" event is hardly likely to die down, as it's become obvious that Trump will be raring to go for another town-hall-style broadcast he can turn into a studio rally - and ratings-hungry CNN boss Chris Licht is just as likely to go for more as well. News personalities at CNN are in a state of flux as well, as Licht decides whom to keep and whom to throw out.  He's already given Brian Stelter the green weenie, and Ana Cabrera has departed for MSNBC. As for CNN's News Central programs, they're pretty good at reporting the news, but they're not very good at presentation; Licht has the anchors of the morning and afternoon programs stand while on the air, and the women are expected to wear high heels.  Even Brianna Keilar. 

Licht has also made it clear that if they want to keep their jobs, they have to forfeit a little integrity.  Hence we have to hear Anderson Cooper and Michael Smerconish, among others, defend - yes defend - the Trump town hall event that featured Trump as the host with moderator Kaitlan Collins in a supporting role,  They're all reading from the same script, saying that Trump is the front runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and CNN cannot simply ignore Trump and must give him air time to respond to the voters.  It's the same old song and dance about how Trump is a credible presidential candidate, even though CNN risked and possibly destroyed its credibility by having Trump come on and repeat his lies in front of an appreciative studio audience.  I know I said all this last week, but I cannot emphasize it enough. 

As for CNN's special programming . . . well, the channel is currently showing its multipart documentary about the 2010s, the worst decade in human history until the 2020s got underway.  I found the first two episodes on TV and music a snoozefest, mostly because I find a lot of contemporary television uninteresting and because  I still believe that making strange sounds with a laptop isn't music (and when Renee Graham of the Boston Globe comes on, you know she's going to defend hip-hop to the death as a great form of artistic expression).  Also, Greta Van Fleet were not mentioned.

Much more interesting was Eva Longoria's culinary travelogue "Searching For Mexico," a series originally made for CNN+ but aired instead on the parent channel when the online child died in its crib.  I didn't know half the stuff that Eva Longoria dove into, particularly with the food - and she only visited Mexico City and six of the country's 31 states.  But will it be back for a second season to explore places like Baja California or Puebla, or did Licht just burn off the original episodes made for CNN+?  The channel pretty much left Stanley Tucci's "Searching For Italy" (Tucci co-produced Longoria's show with her) to wither before he could finish visiting his ancestral homeland's twenty regions, because Licht no longer wants to bother with independently produced programs.  I expect Longoria will get the same harsh treatment.

Finally, speaking of harsh treatment, I cannot end this blog post without commenting on the departure of Don Lemon.  Lemon lived up to his name as a newsman, forced to make small talk with Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow on "CNN This Morning" after having hosted his droll, dull evening program for so long, only to get himself in trouble when he said he preferred watching men's soccer to watching the U.S. women's national team (he apparently likes to watch losers like our men's soccer team; I wonder if he's a Pittsburgh Pirates fan?) and called presidential candidate Nikki Haley "past her prime," angering Harlow and Collins and causing them to walk off the set.  (Many guests wouldn't even appear on "CNN This Morning" because he was on it.)  I didn't think it was possible for a gay man like Lemon to be misogynistic, but there's always a first for everything.         

Lemon's stint as a morning-news anchor didn't even last six months, and his last day was a Monday; he only found out he was fired that night.  With MSNBC having everyone they need (including Ana Cabrera), Lemon might want to take the same path taken by Chris Cuomo and join NewsNation.  He'd be better off returning to local TV news like Susan Roesgen did.  Because he might want to remember the story of the woman with two sons.  One went to sea and the other became a NewsNation anchor.  Neither was heard from again.