Last week, during CNN’s 25th anniversary celebration, CJR Daily took the network to task for shortchanging international news. As we noted then, whereas in 1994 CNN dedicated two hours of its weekday schedule to international news, the CNN of 2005 to date was lucky to feature two hours of foreign news in a week.
At least until today, when that all changed.
Today the network began simulcasting on its US network its meaty news program “Your World Today” that airs regularly on CNN International.
CJR Daily tuned in at 11:45 a.m. EST. Right away we caught a promo for “Your World Today” — a promo that, as it turns out, actually contained more hard news than the five minutes of “CNN Live Today” that followed. (That was pretty easy to do, given that the “CNN Live Today” segment focused on how to keep your pet from shitting all over the hotel room once you leave the premises. Answer: Put the little bugger in a crate.).
But enough with the ridiculous, and on to the sublime.
It speaks to the state of cable news that we sat in shock and awe for the better part of an hour, as anchors Zain Verjee and Jim Clancy did nothing more than deliver the news like it’s supposed to be done.
The newscast kicked off with an in-depth report on the latest developments in Sudan, as the International Criminal Court announced today that it would begin an investigation into alleged war crimes. Yes, that would be the same genocide that CNNI’s U.S. counterpart hasn’t found the time to bother with for pretty much all of 2005. For eight minutes — nearly an eternity in cable news — CNN turned to correspondent Nic Robertson for the story on the ICC and then to Pultizer prize-winning Professor Samantha Power to address the obvious question — will the ICC’s intervention do anything to curb the violence?
Throughout Robertson’s report CNNI ran stock footage of burned villages, famished refugees and sick children to emphasize the severity of the crisis.
From Sudan, “Your World Today” moved on to a speech by Syria’s President Bashar Assad to the Syrian Baath Congress. Assad told the Baath leaders that the enemies of Syria are using modern technology to destroy the Arab identity. This led into a conversation about democratic reforms in Syria, or the lack thereof. The Syrian ambassador to the United States claims reforms are unfolding. Critics say too little, too late. Correspondent Brent Sadler neatly put it in context, telling viewers that, while free speech and opposition parties are still outlawed, there has been some movement toward democracy, but not enough to satisfy Syria’s citizens or outside observers.
Next up was a quick report on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s trip to Asia to deal with North Korea’s nuclear threat, amidst published reports that the United States might try to initiate UN action against the rogue Communist state. Rumsfeld denied those reports on-camera.
Stunned by 15 straight minutes of actual news, we heard an equally incredulous CJR colleague in the background quip, “It’s weird to be watching news.” And indeed it was.
When CNNI came back from a commercial break, it touched on the International Olympic Committee’s latest report on preparations for the 2012 games, followed by a bulletin that the UK would be shelving its referendum on the beleaguered EU constitution.
Around 20 minutes in, CNNI paused briefly to do its best imitation of CNN itself, touching on the Michael Jackson trial and the latest Attractive White Woman Gone Missing — Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba on a class trip.
But instead of dominating the news coverage as we’ve become so accustomed to, these reports were squeezed in at the end of the half hour, where the less important news belongs. Following Jackson and Holloway came a quick look around the headlines in the United States and then five minutes of business news.
At 12:31 “Your World Today” paused to run through the headlines from the top of the hour — Syria, Olympic bids, and then, as promised, Sudan again.
CJR Daily was quite skeptical that the segment with the Sudanese ambassador to the United States would add anything but PR to the broadcast. But anchor Zain Verjee wasn’t about to let the ambassador off the hook. As she had noted in the previous Sudan segment, the Sudanese officials are known for their “charm offensive,” putting the best light possible on a policy that has left hundreds of thousands dead. Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed did not disappoint. But neither did Vergee, who intervened on multiple occasions, pushing him to answer her questions on how the Sudanese government would deal with the ICC, as running footage of the grisly crisis occupied the split screen.
Next came an in-depth look at the politics around North Korea’s nuclear program, as three CNN reporters speculated as to why U.S. officials leaked reports that the Americans might bring the issue up at the UN, when in fact it appears that they will not.
More U.S. news came after that, and then a not-so-captivating story commemorating CNN’s 25th birthday on an apartheid survivor.
And so ended a CNN broadcast that, for one solid hour of journalism with teeth, had avoided the Talking Head Ping Pong matches that plague cable news. True, at one time CNN had three people on screen, but this time they were talking to each other to inform the viewer, not to one-up each other with the wittiest barb.
There were flaws — the final segment dragged on, and the anchors often under-reported the number of dead Sudanese, citing a woefully outdated figure of tens of thousands, when experts agree that the number is, at the least, 200,000. But while the anchors might have gotten that detail wrong, their knowledge of the subjects they were reporting showed repeatedly in their pointed questions to guests and to CNN correspondents. And there was news. The 13 minutes that “Your World Today” dedicated to Sudan may well have exceeded the amount of time CNN has devoted to that subject all year long.
We applaud all this, and have only one question for Jonathan Klein, the mastermind behind it: Why has it taken this long? Did CNN all along think that American viewers, besotted on tales of runaway brides and Court TV, couldn’t handle informed discussion concerning matters in Sudan, Syria, and North Korea?
Perhaps. But if it turns out that’s the case, it’s only because on-air news outlets, including CNN, have for too long robbed that public of the news it deserves.
Thomas Lang was a writer at CJR Daily.