CNN's Fake News Problem, or not.

CNN is fake news. There's a viral video from inside their studios in which people admit they make stuff up. This comes as no surprise to me. In the 1980's when I lived in Atlanta one of my customers worked at CNN. I innocently asked him one day what they do on slow news days. He answered by describing to me how he paid people to do things while his cameraman filmed it. He cited a specific case, that he alleged he engineered in the Middle East, of kids throwing rocks at soldiers. I presume he told me the truth because there was no economic benefit for him in lying to me.

So assuming this behavior of fabricating news is a long term pattern or practice at CNN what should Jeff Zucker (the man in charge) do about it? Time Warner's institutional shareholders want a good return on their investment in Turner & CNN. Do you continue to make stuff up to increase ratings, making it easier to sell ad space, but be positioned as the Jerry Springer of cable news? Do you offer a disclaimer to your viewers that you're totally full of it 24/7? Do you accept that most Americans think you're a complete joke and continue to try to appeal to those who are just too lazy to seek facts? I'm glad I'm not in his position because I genuinely believe Satan is the father of all lies. I would not want to have to make things up for ratings and ad revenue, then not be able to sleep at night, knowing I would ultimately be held accountable for it.

It'll be interesting to see if One America News (347 on Direct TV) gets traction by actually reporting what's happening as opposed to creating fiction. We'll see, but I'm not holding my breath. It seems to be in the DNA of reporters to be BS artists.