CNN is pretty good when it doesn’t suck

The network should stop compromising its journalism to please MAGA

There were some real high points for CNN last week.

The network broke the news that a binder full of classified information on Russia had disappeared after Donald Trump ordered it brought to him in the waning days of his presidency.

And in a few noteworthy cases, CNN journalists aggressively fact-checked brazen lies by politicians.

Yet at the same time, CNN’s attempts to seize a mythical middle and appear fair to MAGA propagandists raise questions about the network’s direction as we prepare to enter a crucial election year.

First, some good signs.

On Monday, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was on Kaitlan Collins’ CNN show. She asked him about the Republicans’ fake-electors scheme, which Johnson participated in, since his office tried to convey fake-elector slates to Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6. (You may recall the video where Johnson pretended to be talking on his cellphone to avoid reporters’ questions about his role.)

On Collins’ show, Johnson tried to sell the idea that Democrats have also pushed fake electors in the past.

Johnson: Democratic electors have done that repeatedly. … It’s happened in different states.

Collins: Which ones, sir?

Johnson: I’m not prepared to give you the exact states. But it’s happened repeatedly. It has happened repeatedly. Just go check the books.

Collins: Which books?

After an awkward silence, Johnson complained that “this isn’t what this interview was going to be about,” but he did offer to provide documentation. A few days later, Collins was back with a follow-up. Collins said Johnson offered examples, but none proved his point. She explained in detail why the 1960 election aftermath cited by Johnson was not comparable to what Republicans plotted in 2020. This is the way fact-based journalism is supposed to work.

Another example of media professionalism came later in the week when CNN’s Kasie Hunt interviewed independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.

Hunt: Over the summer in an interview you said, “There’s no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.” Do you still believe that?

Kennedy: I never said that.

Hunt: Stop … we have the clip.

If only it was routine for TV interviewers to have video evidence ready when they interview a proven liar. CNN played the clip, and – guess what – Kennedy said: “There is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.”

I wish Hunt had asked him why he lied. Part of what I call fact-crusading (as opposed to mere fact-checking) is making liars suffer for their sins. There’s a dangerous attitude out there that lying is a part of the political game and spotting lies is a part of the news game. But our nation’s future is not a game.

In the same week when Collins and Hunt were serving the public, others at CNN failed to do so in lame town halls featuring Republican candidates Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The DeSantis event came off as a free campaign commercial hosted by Jake Tapper. The CNN host asked the candidate about his pledge to shoot drug traffickers “stone cold dead” at the border: “How is that legal, and how can you ensure that you’re not going to end up shooting innocent people?” DeSantis didn’t directly answer the question except to say, “We’re going to have intelligence, we’re going to have a lot of things operating in ways that we never have before.” No follow-up from Tapper.

Later DeSantis accused Joe Biden of focusing on electric cars while “kneecapping reliable energy — oil and gas and the like.” Tapper has to know that U.S. oil production is at an all-time high under Biden. But he didn’t push back. Instead he went to a commercial.

At the Ramaswamy town hall, CNN’s Abby Phillip tried to defend the facts, but it was a losing battle. The loud-mouthed Ramaswamy made the fact-free argument that Jan. 6 was an “inside job,” and Phillip told him “there is no evidence that there were federal agents in the crowd.” That didn’t slow down Ramaswamy, who kept talking over her amid applause and an approving hoot from the audience.

CNN turns its on-air talent into targets with garbage events like this. Right-wing radio host Megyn Kelly said after the Ramaswamy town hall, “That Abby Phillip is annoying. She is such an interruptor. Like, shut the F up!”

Republicans want a clear shot to deliver propaganda to the public, and too often they get it. CNN is nearly two years into its attempt to become “less radioactive to Republicans,” as the Associated Press put it. These days it’s not hard to find examples of CNN programming that pleases the GOP. Last week, a commentary by Michael Smerconish raised questions about the effort to fast-track Trump’s Jan. 6 court case. In case anyone wondered what Trump thought of CNN’s commentary, he posted it on social media with a “thank you” to Smerconish for his “honesty and understanding.”

But in other cases, as we’ve seen, CNN’s honest pursuit of the facts causes it to get crossways with Republicans. It seems like CNN does a pretty good job when it doesn’t suck.

Sometimes the newsroom culture clash is right on the surface. While CNN let a hateful demagogue like Ramaswamy have an hour of airtime, it also allowed one of its own journalists, Oliver Darcy, to write an item in his Reliable Sources newsletter denouncing CNN’s platforming of Ramaswamy.

CNN will have an identity crisis until it either gives in to MAGA or rejects it.

If you’re a news outfit dedicated to facts, you’re not going to be friendly with a political party that lies. And if you’re friendly with a political party that lies, you’re not going to be a news outfit dedicated to facts.

It’s a teeter-totter of truth. When one goes up, the other goes down.