I’ve been giving CNN what might appear to look like a pass for many months now. However, truth be told, every sentence we write and every story we tell in the SCOOP Newspaper is important.
Over the last three months, it has been more important to me to share information about the men and women who were running for political office and asking for our votes than to give free publicity to a major media conglomerate such as CNN because they fired a broadcaster that I have enjoyed watching for many years. The time has come now that the primary election is behind us to spread our journalistic wings, once again and delve into some other subjects.
I have been very disturbed by the recent changes at CNN, namely the firing of Don Lemon, someone whom I think of as an outstanding journalist, broadcaster, and top-notch professional. I was not pleased when Don Lemon was abruptly moved from his nighttime news slot to early mornings and then grouped with two lesser experienced women for that morning slot. It just was not a good fit from the get-go. The decision-maker who switched Don Lemon from night to morning had it in for Don all along. I believe. Let’s just be clear the writing was on the wall. Poppy Harlow, Don Lemon, and the woman with the perpetual smirk on her face, Kaitlan Collins (simply put) were not the right recipe for CNN Mornings.
Perhaps I am at fault for having put too much stock into CNN in the first place, but CNN was my absolute number one go-to network anytime there was a major crisis or earth-shattering breaking news story for more than 30 years. I mean my number one. I recognize that all media outlets have flaws. From time to time in print
media, for example, a typo will slip by the eye of an editor because we are human. In TV media, perhaps a news anchor will read the lead-in for a story, but the wrong footage will pop up on the screen. In radio, a reporter could be sharing a breaking news item, and the producer pulls up the audio meant for the next story. Things happen.
For me, CNN was it. Whenever there were major news stories that I wanted to stay on top of that were national or international in scope, CNN was always my network channel of choice. I think my love affair with CNN started with Bernard Shaw, CNN’s chief anchor for two decades and a pioneering Black journalist remembered by many for the way in which he calmly re- ported the start of the Gulf War in 1991. Bernard Shaw …
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