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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged CNN

1. May 2, 2011 06:04 PM

   “I Am Not Reporting Anything to You”

   How Fox News, CNN handled the initial Bin Laden news

   By Liz Cox Barrett

   In the event that you were not watching cable news last night, rest assured that Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer handled the breaking Bin Laden news (specifically, the hour or so before the president actually announced that “justice has been done”) exactly as you imagined they would. During the longer-than-expected wait between the announcement of President Obama’s...

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2. March 11, 2011 12:21 PM

   A Zombie Lie Is Born

   CNBC's false welfare-state story spreads far and wide

   By Ryan Chittum

   Two days ago I fisked a false report from CNBC that said more than a third of all wages and salaries are now government handouts. That kind of a report, based on a study by an outfit called TrimTabs Investment Research, is genetically engineered to go viral. I closed my post with this pessimistic note: This one will presumably be...

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3. July 2, 2012 01:44 PM

   Anderson Cooper (finally) exits the closet [updated]

   The CNN anchor announces he's gay in a published email to Andrew Sullivan

   By Peter Sterne

   Anderson Cooper’s sexual orientation has been something of an open secret for some time. But Monday morning, he finally came out publicly. The news broke shortly after 11 a.m., when Cooper’s old friend Andrew Sullivan, who has been out for decades, posted an email from Cooper on his blog at The Daily Beast. In the email, Cooper declares: The fact...

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4. October 7, 2011 08:06 PM

   Audit Notes: Overdraft Ethics, CNN’s Wall Street Apologist, U.S. Gas Boom

   By Ryan Chittum

   American Banker's Jeff Horwitz finds some emails that offer an interesting look into how banks make unethical decisions to gouge their customers. These are from Union Bank, which like lots of banks, artificially reordered checking account transactions to make bigger transactions clear first. That makes it more likely that the customer will rack up multiple overdrafts. There was pushback amongst...

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5. October 26, 2012 03:00 PM

   CNN says women vote with their hormones

   The Twitterverse goes mental

   By Hazel Sheffield

   It took seven hours of Internet backlash on Wednesday night for the Internet to convince CNN that an article it published needed to be removed. The article? A piece written by CNN’s Elizabeth Landau, based on unpublished research, saying that women’s voting choices are affected by their ovulation cycles. For a time, the story was featured on the CNN homepage....

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6. July 22, 2011 02:00 AM

   CNN, Piers Morgan, and the Hacking Scandal

   Questions raised about primetime anchor's tenure as a tabloid editor

   By Ryan Chittum

   It would be rather ironic if Fox News enemy CNN turns out to have a hacking-scandal-by-association problem on its hands, brought on by News Corp.'s woes and CNN’s decision to hire a former British tabloid editor to anchor an hour of primetime. That might even perk up the folks at "Fox & Friends" on the importance of this whole hacking...

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7. June 12, 2012 02:50 PM

   Dumb and dumber

   How far can CNN sink?

   By Michael Massing

   In April, CNN recorded its lowest monthly ratings in more than 10 years. In May, it recorded its lowest monthly primetime ratings in more than 20 years. It’s now regularly eclipsed not only by Fox News (long the leader in cable news) but also by MSNBC. Last year, I suggested to an editor at CJR that it do a story...

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8. November 3, 2010 01:46 AM

   Election Night Coverage Roundup

   What was said on CNN, NPR, the BBC, the NYT, and elsewhere

   By CJR Staff

   CNN CNN clearly wants to wow viewers with the whiz-bang: the “data wall,” the “election matrix,” the “sentiment analysis” of the “Twittersphere,” the exit poll 3-D doodads that from time to time crowd Ali Velshi out of the shot entirely. But what I am watching—really, watching—is Wolf Blitzer. Wandering the set. With pen and notepad. (A human foil, sort of,...

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9. October 16, 2012 05:30 PM

   Fisching for attention

   CNN didn't need to give anti-gay activist Bryan Fischer airtime

   By Sara Morrison

   You'd think there would be little to criticize about Southern Poverty Law Center's "Mix It Up at Lunch Day" project, designed to teach children tolerance and prevent bullying in schools by asking students to "connect with someone new" during lunch on October 30. But American Family Association found a way! The nonprofit association, which SPLC designated as an anti-gay hate...

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10. August 1, 2011 01:32 PM

    Follow a 99er Through the Press As the Money Runs Out

    The long jobs crisis, with no end in sight, should prompt us to revisit older stories

    By Ryan Chittum

    Now that it's certain that our leaders have gone all in on austerity, despite a 9.2 percent unemployment rate and an economy that looks like it's sliding back into recession, it's time for the press to redouble its focus on the unemployed, and particularly the long-term jobless. Actually, it was already long past time for that. Now it's really time...

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11. November 19, 2010 11:22 AM

    Haiti Coverage and “Disaster Porn”

    Cholera epidemic offers convenient B-roll for nightly newscasts

    By Maura R. O'Connor

    Last month I was reporting a story on the opening of a mango warehouse in Haiti’s countryside when a fellow reporter got a phone call from his editor: forget about mangoes and get to Saint Marc, where an unknown disease had already killed forty-four people. We arrived at the town’s hospital an hour later. Hundreds of people—men, women, and children—lay...

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12. November 12, 2012 06:50 AM

    Historic votes, hidden from live coverage

    The four gay marriage votes in last week's election were hard to follow in real-time

    By Jennifer Vanasco

    In her column, Minority Reports, Jennifer Vanasco analyzes how the mainstream media covers social minorities. Do you know what was most frustrating to me about the election last week? Trying to track real-time results for the ballot questions on same-sex marriage in four states. Maine, Maryland, and Washington all asked voters if gays and lesbians should have marriage equality in...

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13. June 14, 2011 12:42 AM

    How to Dodge Debate Dodges

    CNN debate demanded one simple phrase

    By Clint Hendler

    Last night’s CNN debate drew the respect and attention that the first debate, hosted in early May by Fox News, just couldn’t muster. This time, front-running Mitt Romney was on the scene. He was joined by the recently humbled Newt Gingrich and by newcomer Michele Bachmann, who stole a moment to announce that she was just about ready to announce...

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14. January 18, 2011 01:36 PM

    Is Oprah’s Boring-ness Contagious?

    By Joel Meares

    I caught the last ten minutes of CNN’s debut of Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday. Accordingly, I will refrain from judgment. Except to say there is something a little grating when an interviewer’s final question is: “How did I do?” (He was “surprising,” according to Ms. Winfrey.) And what was with that Oprah-esque setting—you gave her a kind of soft-focus...

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15. September 11, 2012 07:10 AM

    Medicare ‘bankruptcy’: CNN gets it right

    The network fact-checks a frequent talking point, and does it well

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Hooray for CNN.com, for fact checking the often-heard claim of Medicare’s “impending” bankruptcy. CNN’s contribution sets a high bar, and the network also distinguishes itself from the over-the-top fact checking that has cropped up lately, as pointed out recently by my colleague Brendan Nyhan. The “bankruptcy” language comes up a lot. In his convention speech last week, for example, former...

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16. June 14, 2011 02:11 PM

    Mitt’s Great Escape

    Press declares Romney winner of last night’s punchless fight

    By Joel Meares

    Last night’s GOP primary debate at Saint Anselm College began something like an episode of Jeopardy!, with the contestants/candidates making quick, charming, innocuous introductions, like, “I'm Rick Santorum. I served twelve years representing Pennsylvania in the United States Senate, but I also have substantial executive experience making the tough decisions and balancing budgets and cutting spending. Karen and I...

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17. January 20, 2011 03:05 PM

    New Survey Says Fox Least Trusted

    But there are more questions to be asked

    By Joel Meares

    Public Policy Polling yesterday released its annual study of people’s trust in TV news, and the results are sure to please Fox News detractors. Last year, 49 percent of respondents said they trusted Fox News Channel; this year just 42 percent do. Last year, 37 percent said they distrusted Fox; this year, 46 percent of respondents said they did. The...

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18. June 29, 2012 03:00 PM

    News Corp.’s digital divergence

    While print media converges on TV news

    By Felix Salmon

    There’s no secret why Rupert Murdoch is breaking News Corp into two pieces. Amy Chozick explains: News Corporation had evolved into a successful entertainment company with a newspaper problem, several people close to the company have said. “The idea this was this integrated media company isn’t true,” said one of those people, who was briefed on News Corporation’s strategy but...

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19. January 11, 2011 04:19 PM

    On Haiti

    By Liz Cox Barrett

    It was a year ago, tomorrow, that Haiti experienced a devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake. The AP's Jonathan M. Katz, the only American reporter in Haiti full time at the time of the earthquake, recalls the day of the quake and reports on the days since. Writes Katz: In the year since, crisis has piled upon crisis. More than 230,000 are...

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20. November 12, 2010 02:07 PM

    Parker/Palin

    By Joel Meares

    Turns out Parker/Spitzer is still on the air. And, heck, the show is even making news thanks to former governor, Facebook aficionado, media critic, Fox Newser, and reality star Sarah Palin. Sort of. Last night Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer had documentary filmmaker John Ziegler on the show to discuss his new film, “Media Malpractice:...

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