Maxiavelli: CNN International's Gradual Decadence

Romans of the Decadence - Thomas Couture

CNN International is gradually becoming unbearable.

Apart from Fareed Zakaria's "GPS", Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room", Richard Quest's "Quest Means Business", Errol Barnett's "Inside Africa" and "Voices of Africa" the channel has practically gone tedious. What changed?

I used to be an avid spectator of AC 360º; I even forced myself to forgive Anderson Cooper for his bad habit of latching onto a story ,without letting go, for nearly a month. But now I can't watch the show any longer (sorry Andy Cooper, tu es mignon, I adore you but I am cheating on you with Fox News).

What caused it? For instance, the coverage of the Zimmerman case (after the verdict, it seemed like CNN, through AC 360º, was intent on creating racial tensions in the US again. They pushed for a racial agenda instead of taking advantage of the case to address a more pressing issue: parent responsibility among Black Americans and a change in their comportment); the coverage of Snowden's case (they practically glorified a traitor and a journalist who put at risk the national security of a cluster of nations) and, the coverage of the detention of Glenn Greenwald's partner at Heathrow Airport (they gave Greenwald a means to show how ridiculous and ignorant he really is: to go on AC 360º and tell Anderson Cooper that the secret services will never be able to crack the encryption in the electronic devices his partner [an Intel Mule] had in his possession is pitiable - I apologise for what I am about to say, but his reaction really begs the question: is he on drugs? He can't be that witless, or romantic, to the point of believing that the secrets services have actually lost their abilities. Either way, he made an utter fool of himself and, unfortunately, so did Anderson Cooper by proxy).

I used to watch Piers Morgan's show (I don't like it much, yet sometimes I visualised it), now I don't any longer. Pourquoi? First, I don't like the way he calls some of his conservative guests "stupid" (he can be mordant, for the sake of the show, without having to resort to rudeness); second, his pushing of the anti-second amendment agenda fatigued me to the core (should he, as a guest in the US, be doing that? It would be like hosting a guest in your house and having him telling you how to run your household); third, his blatant emotional bias towards any of the segments of the Arab-Israeli Conflict is bad public service (PM Netanyahu should refuse giving him interviews in the future; what's the point of doing it if Israel is not going to benefit from them?); fourth, his coverage of the Zimmerman case (Rachel Jeantel may be bright but it doesn't alter the fact that she came out rude in the court of law; yet CNN went to great lengths to re-shape public opinion about her); and fifth, his demagogic Pot Campaign (Piers Morgan invited a group of women - calling themselves "Pot Moms" - who perniciously stated that they are "better parents because of pot" - as if the recipe were kosher for everybody).

CNN International used to be my news channel; the one I'd first run to before my morning yoga sessions. It used to be careful enough to broadcast meaningful global events. Now it seems like a tasteless merge of CNN and TMZ.

During the June-July period, many of us wanted to know (and follow up on) what was happening in Turkey, in Brazil, in African nations (being targeted by Radical Islamists), in Japan, in the Eurozone, and what did CNN International offer us? The pre-birth, the birth and post-birth of Prince George...I mazel toved, and blessed, the birth of the little royal baby, however if I wanted to focus on that I would have tuned Her Majesty's news network: the BBC World News.

CNN International is slowly degrading itself and for what: accolades?

Until it reboots itself, Maxiavelli will quench her thirst, of relevant information, on Euronews and Fox News.

Ciao!