CNN and Monomania

I must be old, because I remember when CNN used to be in the business of all the news, all the time.

Now it's gotten to the point where the network has a few monomanias that dominate and replace the idea of "universal coverage" of world news. It's no longer news. It's now wholly advertising fodder, advertising pandering. 

I understand the upcoming American presidential election is crucial. But I still think the network has lost credibility by talking about Donald Trump fairly constantly. Doubtless this is what sells the most advertising. I really think the network has abdicated its original mission. Things are still happening in the world that matter very much and almost all of those things have absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump. How many round tables of talking heads chattering away on Trump (many of them annoying repeat guests with only a few sound bites in their heads which they parrot constantly) do we really need in a twenty-four hour period?

It's only when a tragedy the size of the Orlando shooting occurs that the channel turns its attention away from Trump and its small handful of other monomanias.

I have to confess I have started watching OAN (One America News) to get fully-rounded news. I do not sympathize with the conservative ideology of this network at all, but I greatly appreciate that it disseminates up-to-the-minute domestic and world news. It's clearly a fledgling network with budget limitations and the young anchors are perhaps a tad green, but they get the job done and I learn what's going on in the world. I cringe every time they refer to Bernie Sanders as "the Marxist-socialist Bernie Sanders" (I kid you not, they never mention his name without affixing that inaccurate epithet) but I will still hang around to get the news.

One very annoying thing did appear on OAN today. At first, it appeared to be an ad spot Trump had taken out for himself. It began with a head shot of Trump and a voice-over narration of him speaking about national security. Then it went off into a really dim-witted sequence of clips attempting to show liberals (both Clintons and other Washington insiders) attempting to address the same issues. There was no context given for this weird (pro-Trump?) media thingie which went on for maybe two or three minutes. If anything alienates me from watching OAN, it will be weird crap like that. The network claims it intends to keep the conservative slant for its political programs and keep the news objective and clean. If they do that, maybe I will hang around. Please no more weird conceptual vids. The quality of that editing was embarrassing. Any pre-teen YouTuber could have done a much better job. Maybe you should hire one, OAN.