CNN's Promotion Of Jim Acosta Suggests Return To Anti-Trump Rhetoric
One of the most of-interest questions about the media this year is what role CNN will play in the 2024 election.
In 2020, the network was a firm asset to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign under the leadership of then-CEO Jeff Zucker.
CNN wasn’t quite MSNBC in volume. But with Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon leading prime-time, the brand offered the same flavor.
The networks forced Zucker to resign in 2022 for an inappropriate, unreported relationship with a subordinate. CNN has since hired two CEOs in his place.
Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery first tasked Chris Licht with the position. Licht’s vision, while unpopular with staffers and viewers, was clear: implement a less politically charged tone.
In 13 months in charge, Licht showed minor improvements by focusing on news-first programs and cutting ties with Lemon, Brian Stelter and Jeffrey Toobin.
However, CNN fired Licht in June.
Mark Thompson assumed the role of CEO in October. Thompson’s intentions are less known. Yet his shakeup this week indicates he’s more aligned with Zucker than Licht – a return to coordinated anti-Trump rhetoric.
On Monday, CNN announced it would trim the morning show, CNN This Morning, down to two hours, from 5 am to 7 am. In addition, the channel announced it had promoted Jim Acosta from weekends to weekdays.
Acosta will lead a revamped version of CNN Newsroom at 10 a.m.
Acosta, a notable Zucker holdover, made his name for his bombastic behavior as White House correspondent during the Trump administration.
As weekend host, he would deliver the news with his patented condescending mannerisms, often light on the truth.
Jim Acosta is not a newsman or a reporter. He’s a zealot; a partisan. No serious news organization can, in good faith, justify elevating him.
Therefore, Thompson’s faith in him suggests CNN is back in the red-hot liberal opining business.
As did the network’s coverage of Donald Trump’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire last month.
Specifically, anchor Jake Tapper cut in halfway through Trump’s Iowa speech and told viewers Trump was "repeating anti-immigrant rhetoric."
He wasn’t.
Trump was addressing his plans to thwart illegal immigration, a topic Iowa caucus-goers saw as more important than the economy.
CNN and Tapper were manipulating votes.
They censored the leading Republican candidate's message understanding that campaigning against illegal immigration is a likely winning message.
OutKick founder Clay Travis spoke about the programming decision earlier this month while on Fox News:
"Also, this is part and parcel of the larger complex. Understand what’s going on here. They are trying to take Donald Trump off of the ballot, Democrats are, and also put him in prison for the rest of his life and at MSNBC and CNN as well because Jake Tapper took him off the air because CNN said we can’t allow this anti-immigrant rhetoric to air. They’re trying to rig the election by not allowing their audience to see what Trump says."
Perhaps Thompson, a former New York Times' editor, feels a moral obligation to prevent Trump from returning to the White House, as so many mass media executives do.
But he also might be trying to save the network.
CNN was a consistent third-place competitor to Fox News and MSNBC under Zucker’s leadership. Yet, in 2023, the network wasn’t even competitive.
The top-rated show on CNN last year was Anderson Cooper 360 with a viewership average of just 743,000, ranking 29th in cable news.
The History Channel and obscure Western networks now top CNN in prime-time ratings.
CNN hasn’t reached $1 billion in profits since 2020.
Thus, I’m skeptical that turning buffoons like Acosta is the answer. If Acosta is the start of a new era, CNN ought to start over.
Honestly, the only way a sure-fire cure for CNN appears to be another presidency for Donald Trump. Without him, there isn’t much market demand in 2024 for a distance-ranked cable news channel.