The new head of CNN ordered the network to cut down on the number of times it uses “Breaking News” to describe a story, that, to be honest, is a good thing:
From the New York Times:
CNN’s ubiquitous “Breaking News” banner is gone, now reserved for instances of truly urgent events. Snarky on-screen captions — “Angry Trump Turns Briefing Into Propaganda Session,” for instance — are discouraged. Political shows are trying to book more conservative voices, and producers have been urged to ignore Twitter backlash from the far right and the far left.
A month into his tenure as the new leader of CNN, Chris Licht is starting to leave his mark on the 24-hour news network he inherited in May from its prominent former president, Jeff Zucker. So far, the Licht Doctrine is a change from the Zucker days: less hype, more nuance and a redoubled effort to reach viewers of all stripes.
Licht has never run a network, however, so maybe him thinking this will fundamentally change anything should be a warning sign of how things will go in the future:
Running a network is a new challenge for Mr. Licht, a 50-year-old lifelong producer who has never led an organization as big as CNN. (His last employer, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” had a staff of about 200 people; CNN has roughly 4,000.) Some CNN journalists say they wonder if he can navigate a sprawling, unwieldy global news network past what has been a no good, very bad year.
Case in point? Last night while I was watching CNN, the network just substituted different phrases for “Breaking News.” Like “First on CNN”:
Jake Tapper even ended the segment by calling it “breaking news.” Old habits die hard:
Wolf Blitzer then did a story where they chyron said “New Developments”:
And then later on, “New Tonight”:
CNN’s Brian Stelter, who was never shy about tweeting out “BREAKING” on his stories, seems to have fallen in line. Let’s see if it lasts:
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CNN will cut down on ‘Breaking News’ stories but it’s hard to break old habits
