Gotta Get More Republican

People think this piece by longtime conservative journalist Tim Alberta about CNN is scathing, but really it just misses the point that Licht was told to "make it more right wing" and there's no way to implement that without going full Fox.

There's already a Fox and also Newsmax.
 
The belief that CNN (Communist News Network) was alienating Real America by being too left wing was always ridiculous, but that hasn't stopped it being a constant belief not just of right wing operatives (like Alberta, who even as he is "scathing" of the current leadership also basically agrees with its given task), but of all those political journalists who never watch either but who believe, because their friends tell them, that "Fox is a bit right wing just like CNN is a bit left wing, The Same."

But, anyway, all this talk about CNN gives the whole thing too much credit. The new bosses want a MAGA network. There are already MAGA networks. There isn't actually a left wing network. Who do you think your viewers are?

Feel like I'm going insane with this CNN story. Licht's "theory" of CNN was and is "my bosses John Malone and David Zaslav want it to be a right-wing network now and I am doing that, as instructed"

— big whoop (@leftafire) June 4, 2023

I guarantee Alberta went in this to write about how brilliant the whole idea was, but had to shift gears when faced with the shitshow and ratings drop. He believed in the mission, as he said!

I felt for Licht. Having spent long stretches of the past year in conversation with him as he attempted to build “the new CNN,” I often found myself agreeing with his principles of journalism.

This was supposed to be a glowing profile. The Man Who Saved CNN (from what? who knows).  It just couldn't survive contact with reality.

The truth is there aren't any "lefties" - defined as not simply being Republican-skeptical, but actually presenting any sort of left wing policy perspective - on cable news with daily slots (some weekenders sometimes) except for Chris Hayes.  The rest of the cable news "lefties" are Never Trumpers, normie Democrats, and journalists who actual cover what Republicans are doing at "best." 

That "no one" in DC journalism seems to be aware of this unarguable fact is interesting!!!  And it's basically been true, give or take, for decades!