CNN International & Domestic

I heard a report on my BBC local radio station the other day, I think it was by John Sopel, the gist of which was that Biden's best tactic currently is to stay out of news and let his opponent dig himself deeper. He doesn't actually need to say anything to swing the polling towards him at the moment. Though to be honest Biden's not adverse to saying stupid things either so it works both ways.

I imagine once the official confirmation of his candidacy at the DNC (although presumably there won't be a convention as usual) and the announcement of a running mate, things will pickup for his campaign. The running mate could be the key, there's some interesting ones in the frame and they should be able to get out and about more than Biden, though I suppose that depends how much worse covid gets over there


Incidently there are some amazing and brutal anti-trump political ads around at the moment, really really well produced and absolute masterpiece examples of how to do a political attack ad. They're not by the Democrats (although Bidens have been quite good too) but by a Republican group called The Lincoln Project. They use the sort of language and style normally used by their party but against their party. Well worth a look if you like that sort of thing

The other interesting thing about them is that of course everyone knows what he watches on TV so they can buy slots during Fox and Friends in DC and they know he will see them and he won't like them. They are partially using them as a psychological attack on Trump and they know its working as Trump rage tweets after they get shown.

It's going to be an odd campaign

Sorry, I'm a bit lost and I don't mean to sound stupid but for those who aren't into sport, what did CNN get wrong?

"1996 British World Cup Winner" - should be 1966 England World Cup Winner
"1997 Footballer of the Year" - should be 1966-67 Footballer of the Year
"Went on to manage other football teams" - isn't wrong, but perhaps would've been better to note his management of the Irish national team since that is the most notable

Indeed the screenshot had him being named Footballer of the Year at aged 62 which would've been quite the achievement.

'Went on to manage other teams' even though not incorrect also doesn't feel the most appropriate language to include in a summary of somebody's life. Surely at the least mention the other places he's managed - like being the Irish national manager.

I mean there's bound to be the odd error at times on a news channel but that slide is full of them.

It isn't a US story, so they don't know...

It used to be a great international channel. Now, most of the news stories on the international channel have US links. Waste of time tuning in for a global round-up.
Most of the time it's just a simulcast of the US channel these days, anyway.

Friday's Quest Means Business was ditched without notice for another US simulcast.
There wasn't even any breaking news and seemingly no real reason that they couldn't have at least just done a regular International news bulletin on CNNI, if Quest or a stand-in wasn't available for full QMB.
However, Quest was working on Friday, as he did First Move earlier in the day.

Even in these unprecedented times, surely such a big company - 'the world's news leader' - could do more international bulletins for their dedicated international channel than they are.

Journalism used to be about checking facts - sadly now it's often about regurgitating content, usually unchecked.

That is poor though - CNN International covering Jack Charlton's death is no different to UK based organisations having to cover the death of Kobe Bryant - you make sure you get your facts right by researching and checking before they get to screen.

One observation, if I may, that I find particularly odd is that compared to other TV news channels, CNN's graveyard shifts have the best content as I find them to be "actual news". For me, the most palatable Domestic programming which is simulcast is weekend daytimes' CNN Newsroom (notably Fredricka Whitfield's early afternoon hours) and the most palatable International programming is US overnights or early afternoons (recently Rosemary Church/Natalie Allen/Paula Newton or Hala Gorani). Granted, I'm probably not the target audience and I'm not American but the rest is quite frankly anxiety-inducing.

At risk of going off-topic, you might be interested to know that Americast with Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis is back weekly and is superb. Last week's episode with polling expert Larry Sabato made your point. Biden is staying quiet - so when he does speak it gets lots of guaranteed coverage. Trump obviously gets lots of coverage daily but his lack of clarity dilutes any message (if he even has a clear message right now). I've also seen that CNN and MSNBC are no longer covering Trump rallies live - instead clipping up relevant bits later. Presumably they are fed up of airing the president's "fake news" rants live.

Oh, I'd also recommend the NPR Politics Podcast although it's daily so I don't always get to every episode.


I agree. From this week's Americast, it seems Trump and his aligned campaign groups want to focus on all his previous usual campaigning stuff (ignoring Coronavirus completely). The Democrats haven't yet shown their cards yet, but leadership in the age of Covid is bound to feature.

Getting back to CNN, I do like the fact we can now watch the official stream live in the UK. I cast it to my TV sometimes and the quality is excellent. I hope they keep it available up until the election now.

I watch it with fascination, to be honest. This must surely be Wolf Blitzer's last presidential election. The daytime coverage is good, and mostly reasoned - as is Anderson Cooper in prime time.

While I agree mostly with what he says about Trump, Cooper's program is becoming a bit too predictable and is a shadow of what AC360 once was

Becky Anderson is back today from AD, for the first time in months. I don't think she's been on air ever since the schedule changed due to COVID19 and Hala took over her slot.

Good to hear Becky is back. Wonder what this means for Hala - as Amanpour is still airing in Hala's usual slot.

We've seen that Hala & Isa both have WFH set-ups they have anchored from so it does feel like if CNNI really wanted to they could air something vaguely resembling their normal schedule even if it did still have most anchors presenting from their homes.