Shout Out to Trained Seals

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Chris Licht, the controversial and embattled chairman and chief executive officer of the cable news giant CNN is stepping aside after a very short, turbulent time at the top, according to numerous reports on Wednesday morning, including from inside the company.

CNN CEO Chris Licht reportedly to leave cable news giant within 48 hours

Bill Grueskin, a Columbia Journalism School professor, wrote brutally: “It wouldn’t be fair to say a trained seal could do a better job running CNN than Chris Licht. It’s just that, after reading this piece, it feels like we should give the trained seal a shot.”

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Damn, another centrist champion eats the dust. Kinda seems like people just don't have patience for this schtick anymore.

This op-ed has an interesting exploration of what it aptly labels "anti-woke centrism". The entire thing is worth a read, but this jumps out to me as especially insightful:

It really matters that these anti-woke centrists often live in deeply Democratic areas. If you are in a red state, like me, you are constantly in fear of your state government adopting conservative policies — such as new limitations on reproductive freedom, transgender rights and honest education about race. But if you live in D.C. New York City or San Francisco, a much more realistic concern is that a “woke” liberal with whom you don’t agree gains political power — or sharply criticizes you in public.

“Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned,” the New York Times declared in the first sentence of a March 2022 editorial.

In reality, there has never been a right to voice your opinion without the possibility of being shamed or shunned (terms without precise meanings) — and there shouldn’t be. Shaming and shunning people are free expression, too. What I suspect this editorial was actually calling for is for self-described Democrats and liberals to be able to express more conservative views (such as skepticism about transgender rights) but without being attacked in the way that conservatives often are for such views (being called bigots).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/06/anti-woke-centrism-cnn-chris-licht-atlantic-profile/

These anti-woke centrists are a pretty unusual type, seemingly mostly white collar professionals in positions of decently high prestige living within cosmopolitan, blue big cities, whose obsession about anti-wokeness drives them into increasingly bizarre and reactionary stances.

 

[dirtywick]

yeah it kind of went from i don't want to wear a mask, i don't want to get a shot, i don't want to be told what to do at all, satan is a real guy out get us so we need to eradicate the blacks, gays, and trans so kids stop pooping in litter boxes at school.

they want to be taken seriously, but i don't think there's an intelligent conversation to be had there. and i'd hope intelligent people have better things to do than talk about that. at this point, i think shame and shun are sensible options.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

CNN CEO Chris Licht reportedly to leave cable news giant within 48 hours

As I have read in a Grauniad article about CNN, it isn't really Licht pushing the Trumpanisation of the channel but the current owner, Licht's problem was that he wasn't strong or capable enough to stand up to an owner too stupid to know what he was doing.

 

[Foster Zygote]

“Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned."

AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! [gasp] AAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

[lomiller]

CNN CEO Chris Licht reportedly to leave cable news giant within 48 hours

Bill Grueskin, a Columbia Journalism School professor, wrote brutally: “It wouldn’t be fair to say a trained seal could do a better job running CNN than Chris Licht. It’s just that, after reading this piece, it feels like we should give the trained seal a shot.”

Are trained seals really any different than a MAGA supporter? After-all, both will clap on the command of their trainer...

 

[Brainster]

And the USA Politics angle is?

 

[a_unique_person]

And the USA Politics angle is?

News organisations having to have a political viewpoint.

 

[Orphia Nay]

"Mr Zaslav said the channel would be led by an interim group of leaders, while the company searched for a replacement."

CNN chief Chris Licht out after just 13 months https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65835981

Too many cooks will spoil the bad broth? Popcorn incoming.

 

[Stacyhs]

Damn, another centrist champion eats the dust. Kinda seems like people just don't have patience for this schtick anymore.

This op-ed has an interesting exploration of what it aptly labels "anti-woke centrism". The entire thing is worth a read, but this jumps out to me as especially insightful:



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/06/anti-woke-centrism-cnn-chris-licht-atlantic-profile/

These anti-woke centrists are a pretty unusual type, seemingly mostly white collar professionals in positions of decently high prestige living within cosmopolitan, blue big cities, whose obsession about anti-wokeness drives them into increasingly bizarre and reactionary stances.

Sigh. Speaking of someone's 'schtick', you seem to be really hyperfocused on this 'anti-centrism, blame everything on Biden and moderates/centrists' message.

This article in the National Review had something to say about your NYT op ed:

One of the more intellectually honest efforts to explain CNN’s travails was penned by Washington Post opinion writer Perry Bacon Jr., who crystalized not only the problem afflicting this network but all news media in a tidy theory of everything: the press is just too darn centrist.

Licht also encouraged skepticism and the critical evaluation of the perspectives reinforced by the social biases dominant on America’s coasts. That is where it all went wrong, according to Bacon.

“Licht’s comments embody an anti-woke centrism that is increasingly prominent in American media and politics today, particularly among powerful White men who live on the coasts and don’t identify as Republicans or conservatives,” Bacon wrote. “By anti-woke, what I mean is skepticism of progressive causes and ideas, especially on issues of gender, race and sexuality.”

This is a valuable contention because it is a falsifiable premise. Its validity can be tested. In that effort, let’s survey the ostensibly centrist media landscape over the last 72 hours or so in relation to its coverage of issues with progressive valance — primarily, the culture war du jour over transitioning therapies for children.

What follows is an examination of this allegedly "centrist" media by examples. The writer's conclusion?

If all this is what passes for “skepticism of progressive causes and ideas,” we can at least see why the occasional executive emerges from obscurity now and then to rein in the herd instincts that dominate the media monolith. Or, rather, you could if you weren’t reflexively hostile to even the rote and perfunctory inclusion of a sentence or two explicating conservative objections to this practice, if only to bury them under great heaps of sanctimony and fallacious argumentation

 

[TurkeysGhost]

Sigh. Speaking of someone's 'schtick', you seem to be really hyperfocused on this 'anti-centrism, blame everything on Biden and moderates/centrists' message.

This article in the National Review had something to say about your NYT op ed:




What follows is an examination of this allegedly "centrist" media by examples. The writer's conclusion?

Not sure I'd be running to the national review if you were trying to counter the idea that centrists drive themselves insane with their anti-woke contrarian positions.

What's next, Breitbart? I guess anyone who punches left is your ally, right?

 

[Stacyhs]

Not sure I'd be running to the national review if you were trying to counter the idea that centrists drive themselves insane with their anti-woke contrarian positions.

You just ignore the numerous examples given that contradict the "anti-woke centrists" media claim. Not surprising.

What's next, Breitbart? I guess anyone who punches left is your ally, right?

That's funny coming from you. You punch anything that isn't as far left as you. Get over it: Bernie lost.