CNN International & Domestic

Jenny is now with Al Jazeera in Doha. Alas, little opportunity for chatting with the news presenter due to their format.

Max, Monita and Jenny were first class entertainment back in the day.

Indeed cutting off the sports bulletins too so they're a separate programme didn't help either.
A bit of interaction between newsreader and the weather presenter or sports anchor etc allows for some lightheartedness that might not otherwise happen and is the sort of thing that makes a rolling news channel feel more warm and makes the whole operation feel more of a 'team'. Particular if the weather presenters are the likes of Mari Ramos or Jenny Harrison who were incredibly knowledgable but also had great personality.

Whereas these days you quite often have the presenter having to cut off a quite interesting interview so they can go to an ad break in time for an overlong World Sport bulletin. The sports bulletins are 15 minutes and often padded out with content from stuff like Living Golf or Supercharged which means you can't help thinking a few extra minutes would be better spent on news.
Might sport be a separate programme because the sports slots have sponsored bits like the Rolex Minute?

It meant for quite a few years you'd have the ridiculous situation late at night where you'd have a repeat of State of America from earlier that evening then at the bottom of the hour a few minutes of CNN Today before they were then carted off for World Sport which was as long if not longer than the CNN Today bit. Scheduling that still baffles me.

I like the CNNI content still most of the time (CNN Domestic is a different matter) but that feel of a proper news channel isn't there as much these days - it just feels a set of different blocks of programmes. And it's not the case that you can tune in whenever you fancy and you'll always get a comprehensive news summary.

In recent years they seemed to have moved away from a rolling news format to what I'd term an "appointment viewing" format, where the network is focused around key news blocks, eg Hala, QWB, CTW, the Brief. It's almost like they're no longer trying to be rolling news, but just driving a focus around their key prime time shows.

For what it's worth, CNN/I is pretty much as close to the 'original' CNN that was made propelled to prominence by the Gulf War . The 'appointment'-type programming is pretty much a legacy of the OJ era. IMO, the Gulf War and OJ were key eras that provided the organisation with two paths.

By the way, who remembers Susan Rook or Bernie Shaw? They remind me of what the original CNN was once like.

When news was the star. Prime News with Benard Shaw in Washington and Susan Rook at CNN Center

The Gulf War to pre-OJ era is what I would consider as CNN's 'heyday' as far as the 'news is the star' mantra is concerned.

A personal message from Anderson Cooper:

This is possibly the best thing you will see on the internet today.
Watch it cause it reassures us that life and love will always win.
Congratulations @andersoncooper ! https://t.co/ERqbmOb9wq

— VT-VLO🇮🇳🏳️‍🌈✈️ (@Vinamralongani) May 1, 2020

For some reason this is also part of every CNN/CNNI news bulletin today. Crucial news for us, viewers. It almost made Julia Chatterley cry again....

When news was the star......

To paraphrase the quote: the job of the news is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I like Anderson, and it seemed fitting that he'd speak about the birth of his son in his show, but personal news for a presenter is not news for the world in regular broadcasts, especially not now.

This is one of the problems of personality driven news; the news becomes secondary as personalities take prominence and yet, ultimately, one is far more important, necessary and even lifesaving than the other.

I do think that was a lovely segment judging by that clip. Anderson is one of CNN’s best anchors and no problem at all with him sharing the news on his show.

I guess part of CNN’s appeal is that you get to know more about the presenters than say Al Jazeera - a channel I like but is very straight laced.

But putting it on the actual news shows - hmm. Perhaps as ‘and finally’ or feature towards the end of the hour as some feelgood news is very much needed at the moment but not sure how it fits into Chatterley’s business brief.

And you do wonder how big a story ‘Anderson being a dad’ actually is to viewers (the situation of same-sex couples, treatment based on sexual orientation are certainly items the news should cover - and indeed I wish we had more reports about topics like that rather than endless Trump roundtables - but I’m assuming the story here is more ‘Anderson’s a dad’ than ‘What it’s like being a same-sex couple in America today’)

I dont understand why it was part of any other broadcast other than an "And Finally" segment which I dont have a problem with at all. Anderson has always been a good journalist but now he will be tied to the desk even more than before becuse of his child. From what i know Anderson, like his close buddy Andy Cohen both are single gay fathers who gave birth to child via surrogacy. For years Anderson doged questions about his sexuality becuase he said he didnt want to detract from being an journalist. But I guess now that he was the final member of his immediate family, he felt the need to share this bit of news. His mother was a very prominent person. She was a Vanderbilt...Yes those Vanderbilt's. And she recently died. And as he mentioned his brother tragically killed himself after jumping from their 5th Ave apartment balcony. So he has been through the wars, personally and professionally. A new birth is always a bit of good news.

I guess it was an attempt at bringing some “feel-good/good news” at a time of mostly grim news. Whether it’s right or wrong or misplaced is another matter, but I think that’s all it was.