The Morning Briefing: CNN Continues Overhaul but How Far Will It Go?

Top O’ the Briefing

Happy Friday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Feldson was dismissed from his duties as Cribbage Club Snack Chairman for insisting that Peeps were a superfood.

It’s been so long that it is difficult to remember, but CNN was once not a network full of leftist crazies. It began its drift into biased madness many years ago but greatly accelerated when Donald Trump began running for president. Trump broke a lot of organizations and people, but practically shattered CNN.

The network had once been positioned as a bit of a centrist option between the Fox News Channel and MSNBC. CNN’s obsession with Trump made it outflank MSNBC on the left, which didn’t seem possible.

Of course, the people involved in that leftward lurch didn’t see it that way, which Matt wrote about the other day:

While CNN chairman and CEO Chris Licht has been pushing for more balanced coverage on the network to improve ratings, recently demoted CNN anchor Don Lemon claims that the network was “never liberal” to begin with.

Lemon made this laughable claim on Monday during an interview with leftist comedian Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

“Word on the street is that you guys aren’t allowed to be liberal anymore. Is that the case?” Colbert asked Lemon.

“I don’t think we ever were liberal,” Lemon claimed.

The claim is especially laughable coming from Lemon, who is one of the most egregiously biased lefties at CNN. When he hosted his primetime show, he was known for cutting the mic of any guest who countered whichever leftist narrative he was pimping at the time.

As Matt mentioned, Lemon now has a diminished role thanks to the boss’s attempts to shift CNN away from the leftist lunatic fringe.

More changes were announced this week, which Matt also covered:

Chris Cillizza, the Democrat cheerleader and CNN analyst I’ve often mocked here at PJ Media, was one of several CNN employees who were fired on Thursday.

Variety first reported that Cillizza, Alison Kosik, Martin Savidge, Alex Field, and Mary Ann Fox were among those who were cut.

Cillizza typified CNN’s leftist lunacy. He’s a buffoon who offers up some of the most awful and wrong takes on any issue. He is so terrible that it often seems that his own words debunk themselves as soon as they’re out of his mouth.

Licht is obviously serious about changing the direction at CNN. The question is, how far will he move it? CNN moved so far to the left that any new center it settles on could still be quite liberal.

As my friend VodkaPundit said on our recent Five O’Clock Somewhere live chat, when CNN was watchable it was sticking to the news. It sent real journalists into the field and war zones to report, not opine.

That business model has no doubt gone by the wayside. Licht could try to regain some viewers by hiring legitimate conservative voices, not media-approved Republican squishes.

There is a definite opportunity here for Licht and his higher-ups. He’s tasked with getting better ratings and making some money. Morphing into MSNBC Lite after promising more balanced coverage isn’t going to do that. It will be interesting to see how far Licht is willing to push the change among people who will almost certainly try and fight him every step of the way.

A bigger housecleaning is in order at CNN.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer network.

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The Mailbag of Magnificence contributions can be sent to [email protected].

The Mailbag of Magnificence

Today’s Mailbag is going to be a quickie. It’s quality, not quantity that matters though, right?

This is Paul’s comment on my sentiment about the COVID fascists doing “a little hard time” for their crimes:

No, sorry , not a little hard time , a lot of hard time is necessary for those criminals , they must be made aware of their crimes and the terrible damage they have done , the deaths and dreadful life changing injuries they have caused .

Of course, I would like to see them punished harshly. This provides me with an opportunity to explain that much of what I write can be flippant. It’s best to not focus on one or two words and assume they convey a lot of what I’m thinking. Take in the whole thing and get a feeling for my tone. It’s like impressionist punditry.

Gregory is a bit of an ingrate:

I think you should travel more; I thoroughly enjoy reading Megan’s column. Despite the fact that as soon as I see her by-line, the lyrics to “What did the Fox say” pop into my head and don’t go away for hours.

I am very grateful that Megan does such a stellar job when she fills in and I’m glad you enjoy her writing, Gregory. But now I’m not going to travel for a long time simply because it felt like you were giving me the bum’s rush there.

I’m kidding.

Or am I?!?!?

We will finish with this suggestion from Donna about the branding for the second sentence:

“Sine qua non sequitur”

I enjoy reading your briefings.

First, thank you Donna for the kind words. It’s always nice to find that people are having fun here. And I LOVE Sine qua non sequitur! It just moved to the top of the list.

We are now on the clock for submissions for next Tuesday’s mailbag.

Everything Isn’t Awful

Dog having fun.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/Rdhi6JGlQh

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) December 1, 2022

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