The nation's doomsayers are finally coming to terms with the fact that the American public is not going to join them in a seaside cave, dressed in sackcloth and moaning over the fate of the Democracy. And that includes CNN, which is some sort of news network — or so I hear.
The network commissioned a poll over the weekend, the results of which were released on Thursday. Heading into Inauguration Day, 56% of those surveyed said they felt that Donald Trump would do "very good" or "fairly good" during his second term in office. Fifty-five percent approve of the way Trump and his team have been handling his transition back into the Oval Office. Not all of the responses were positive for the administration; the numbers above may have been enough to convince CNN that it might need to think about playing nice with the man they have loved to hate for almost a decade. And that may include some personnel moves.
Over on the website Status, former CNN reporter Oliver Darcy is reporting that none other than top narcissism correspondent and Trump agitator Jim Acosta may be heading for the midnight slot, specifically midnight to 2 a.m. EST. The idea reportedly came from Mark Thompson and caught Acosta by surprise. Darcy writes:
He (Acosta) had no reason to believe that his current show would be on the chopping block. In fact, his ratings have historically been some of the network's strongest, both when he was anchoring on the weekends and now at 10am during the weekdays. On some days, Acosta even out-rates some of CNN’s prime-time programs. So why force him to move his show to the 12 am hour, a time slot occupied by virtually zero other hosts in the cable news business? The move would effectively exile Acosta to the Siberia of television news. He'd be manning down a shift when much of the country is fast asleep, and viewership is at its lowest.
Darcy said what most of you are thinking right now: Acosta was best known for antagonizing Trump and his team during the first term, and the nation is not in the mood for the same kind of histrionics and combativeness that Acosta brought to his White House coverage. Chances are, they weren't in the mood for it during Trump's last term either. It may be that CNN has finally decided to stop navel-gazing and deal in reality, which would be a nice change of pace.
Of course, stunts like this, which followed Biden's self-aggrandizing farewell speech on Thursday, probably do not help Acosta's brand.
Some final thoughts on today’s show… on the free press in America. The free press is only “crumbling” if we the people allow that to happen. Watch: pic.twitter.com/m6AAgGyTGU
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 16, 2025
Nice speech, Jim. Just out of curiosity, when did you, CNN, or any of your colleagues do any of those things? By all means, roll tape. The irony to Acosta's screed is that for the last eight years, the legacy media has shown many people exactly why it cannot be trusted to protect the public or "speak truth to power." And incidentally, I sincerely hope that is the last time we hear that hackneyed phrase for a while. Small wonder Thompson is ready to make peace with Trump.
And if the graveyard slot doesn't work out, I could easily see Acosta as the new Sham-Wow guy. Look for the silver lining, Jim.
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