To the Editor,
As a life-long certifiable news-nut, I welcomed CNN from its 1980 inception, despite it being disparaged as Chicken Noodle News by established media. They ate their words after the fledgling took flight with top-notch, in-depth coverage of Princess Diana’s death, Desert Storm, O.J. Simpson Trial, 9/11, Shock and Awe, Hurricane Katrina, and a host of other notable headline stories. It soon became the channel of choice for breaking news around the world, for coverage of hurricanes with reporters holding on to lamp poles while dodging flying debris, and nobody did interviews like Larry King.
Things changed over time, especially during the very lengthy 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, causing my interest to dwindle. Candidates from both parties were given so much repetitive coverage, but when Donald Trump won the Republican nomination there was a noticeable change in tone at formerly independent CNN. Most media organizations world-wide opined that for him to be the Leader of the Free World would be disastrous, and he would be as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle.
Media mavens, political pundits and presumptuous pollsters gave him no hope of winning, and lined up behind Hillary Clinton right up until polling day. When that result went against all odds, rather than eat those large slices of humble pie they so rightly deserved, most media instantly began condemning and ridiculing Mr. Trump’s every move.
He exacerbated the war of words with an unconventional style and contradictory statements; ridiculous press releases via Twitter only added to the confusion, and I became even more disillusioned with political news reportage. Instead of covering news from the White House, reports became routinely editorialized by most correspondents from around the world, including CNN. “Gotcha journalism” became the norm, with more leaks than a porcupine’s raincoat, and only three months into the new administration many presstitutes drew comparisons with President Nixon and called for impeachment of President Trump.
So last weekend, my ears pricked up while news-channel-surfing, and happened upon a commentator on CNN declaring that the president was well within his constitutional rights to fire the FBI director, and that impeachment looked unlikely as there was no unlawful act committed. The CNN interviewers were astonished, as these words of wisdom were dispensed by none other than Alan Dershowitz, the renowned Harvard Law Professor who has been a contributor to the network for decades, and a life-long Democrat who had supported Hillary Clinton to the hilt.
Your readers can judge for themselves by viewing this clip :
www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/05/20/trump-impeachment-dershowitz-cabrera-segment.cnn
Bernie Smith,
Parksville
