CNN Still Hasn’t Learned Ratings Depend on Quality

CNN owes its miserable ratings to the dwindling quality of journalism and rise in unwatchable gossip, and the network’s most recent attempt at character assassination shows it still hasn’t learned that good ratings depend on quality content. On HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, former NYT opinion editor Bari Weiss shared her frustration with the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. The Democrat received an abundance of support from the audience and social media, but the so-called analysis from “the most trusted name in news” wasn’t nearly so well received. As it further narrows its liberal agenda, banishing and shaming anyone who won't fall in line, CNN may find 2022 to be a challenging year.

Turning on a Party Member

Weis told Maher and the audience of her pandemic journey and shared her own analysis of how things are going. She complied with all the recommendations: sanitizing groceries, getting the vaccine, testing, and wearing a mask. However, it’s “ridiculous,” she says, that the country has not returned to normal now that there are vaccines, as the government promised.

Infamous for never being afraid of speaking her mind, Weiss said: "I know that so many of my liberal and progressive friends are with me on this, and they do not want to say it out loud because they are scared to be called 'anti-vaxx' or to be smeared as a Trumper." She labeled this a "pandemic of bureaucracy" focused no longer on health and well-being but rather on politics.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist from George Washington University Hospital who serves as CNN’s medical analyst, joined Jim Acosta in bashing their fellow liberal. After a chopped-up edit of the original HBO clip, the doctor called Weiss a child and said she should grow up. As the fear-mongering COVID statistics occupied the right side of the screen, Dr. Reiner continued to shame Mrs. Weiss for complaining when she had the privilege of not serving as a medical professional throughout the pandemic. He was quick to interpret her message, as well: “When somebody who is relatively young and relatively healthy says that, what they’re saying is ‘I’ll be OK if I get this virus. Screw you. It doesn’t matter to me what happens to you.’”

However, the most significant part of the segment was what they didn’t say. Acosta and Reiner left out and blatantly ignored Weiss' comments on the rise in self-harm, anxiety, and depression among Americans, especially children, and the effects this pandemic has had on education and society. She was adamant that younger generations would remember the nation’s response to the virus as a "catastrophic moral crime." For the sake of Americans' well-being, Weiss contended that we need to return to normal as a country. "People are killing themselves … they are anxious, they are depressed, they are lonely. That is why we need to end it more than any inconvenience that it's been to the rest of us."

CNN has been on a downward spiral of late, and with its response to Bari Weiss's recent comments on COVID, things aren't looking up. While the most progressive viewers have stayed loyal to the media outlet, its numbers give Biden's approval ratings a run for their money. But when a news network launches personal attacks, refuses to even try to see the other side of an argument, and protests anything that doesn't fit its narrowing principles, is it any surprise folks are changing the channel?

~Read more from Keelin Ferris.