Cable news is becoming a thing of the past, but rather than fully adapt or admit they’re turning into dinosaurs, CNN is perpetrating a painful charade on the public to appear more down-to-earth.
And it’s failing miserably.
The anti-Trump network drew public backlash from several media outlets and insider sources, as the new experiment was lost on them.
Hosts Jake Tapper, 57, and Anderson Cooper, 58, were rightfully singled out by Fox News for their attempt to appear hip with new studio styles and wardrobe alterations.
Their updated ensembles included appearing without jackets and ties, with their sleeves rolled up.
Give me a break! These adjustments reek of desperation.
It’s reminiscent of an elitist politician trying to look like a “regular guy” by pumping gas or going hunting, only to have it blow up in their face.
On Friday, Tapper anchored the first hour of his show, “The Lead,” from his office with a large podcast-style microphone on his desk. Subtle much?
“So, you’re probably wondering what’s going on, why we’re in my office for the first hour of ‘The Lead’ today. So, it’s an experiment,” Tapper explained. “This is my actual desk where I do my actual work, not the desk in the studio. And we thought we would bring you into the space where we and my team do our actual journalism and plan the show every day.”
Tapper also had decorations and swag behind him — one was from the losing presidential campaign of a Black Panther Party member — while guests sat on a couch next to his desk. It looked more like the early days of comedian Conan O’Brien at NBC’s “Late Night” than a serious news program.
The Daily Beast, a left-leaning site, also piled on with a Monday article noting how industry insiders think CNN is getting “desperate.”
Sources added that the move could backfire with an aging audience. One told The Daily Beast, “It’s a little late to the party.”
The New Yorker called the style experiment “embarrassing” in a Tuesday write-up.
“It’s kinda like rearranging furniture in a burning house,” independent YouTuber Keith Edwards told Status News. “It shows they fundamentally don’t understand why audiences are leaving.”
It’s more like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The network is already drowning in the ratings and might be beyond recovery.
CNN has lost 40 percent of its audience from the beginning of President Donald Trump’s first presidential term in 2017 to 2025, according to Outkick.
Podcasting changed everything. Hosts like Joe Rogan and Theo Von dominate the ratings because they’re relaxed, dressed in regular clothes, and they don’t use teleprompters.
They treat it like a conversation, ask questions the public is interested in, and tend to avoid political correctness.
Even former television hosts like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Bill Maher got the memo and fully switched their formats to mimic Rogan as a hedge against cable collapsing.
But not CNN.
They chose an extremely odd and embarrassing half-measure.
This is a far cry from Maher sharing a stiff drink and a cigar with his guests as they trade jokes, interesting stories, and polite debate.
CNN’s version feels more like a high school play, and a bad one at that.
Makeover or no makeover, it’s already difficult for the network’s personalities to maintain any semblance of credibility, given their intense bias.
Tapper is one of the worst offenders of all. He pushed his book “Original Sin” on the public, calling out the media’s cover-up of a mentally ailing and physically declining Joe Biden.
The only problem was that it was released after Trump had already won re-election. That’s crackerjack journalism right there.
Like it or not, the world has moved on from cable news. There’s still a place for it in society for now, but it’s rapidly fading.
Like every medium in history, something new and fresh is always waiting in the wings to replace it. Given how dishonest, smug, and biased many members of the media have been during the modern era, it’s surprising their collapse didn’t come sooner.
It’s like the song says, “video killed the radio star.”
In this case, podcasting killed the cable news star.
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