CNN is officially cut off: Network scales back the booze on New Year’s Eve broadcast, says it is ‘just the way things are’
In an editorial today, CNN said the network is “going to cut back” on post-party coverage on its flagship show in 2017.
It said that it will “no longer air a pre-taped special in Times Square on the weekend after New Year’s Day” and that the Sunday morning live broadcast, scheduled after the holidays, will be cut entirely.
The move does not appear to stem from any cutback from the brand, nor does it appear to be an attempt to “tame” a viewer base that may have become exasperated with the network’s “unfair” coverage, according to the editorial, while simultaneously claiming the opposite.
Instead, the move appears to have been sparked by a series of incidents in which the network’s post-party broadcast has given the public wrong impression of news coverage.
In late October, CNN’s anchors — including Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Alisyn Camerota and John King — were criticized over their live coverage of the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The Charlottesville episode, with its uncritically pro-protesters narrative, is perhaps the moment CNN was most criticized for its coverage of Trump-related controversy.
Two weeks prior to Charlottesville, CNN’s post-party coverage at a New Year’s Eve party in Times Square had a similar impact.
When reporter Sara Murray asked Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway if she was a “journalist,” Conway — in an attempt to save face — said, “I don’t read the New York Times. I actually don’t read much, to be honest.”
That quote caused CNN to issue a mea culpa and apologize for its portrayal of Conway, a Trump campaign surrogate, as a “journalist.”
“There are two important components to what we do in 2016: The first thing is finding reporting angles to help people make sense of the issues and the candidates and the campaign,” CNN political reporter Ana Navarro-