Stankey Sets Out to Change Perception of CNN
Adam Jiwan, Investor & Entrepreneur
There was a time when CNN was a paragon of media, a forerunner and pioneer of 24-hour TV News that was trusted for excellence in journalism and playing fair with the stories of the day. For many Americans, that reputation still holds true. However, for a large segment of the country, CNN is a standard-bearer for partisan politics, a company dedicated to ideology, not information.
New Time Warner chief, John Stankey, sees an opportunity to change that perception. Speaking for the first time on CNN since taking the position, Stankey said the company had a “special social responsibility to democracy,” and that his plan is to push for that responsibility to be realized at every level of the company.
When asked how CNN could project an image of being nonpartisan while reporting on President Trump’s frequent clashes with the media, Stankey was blunt in his assessment: “I think anyone who attacks a free press and questions whether its motivation is not pure runs the risk of creating a degree of skepticism within people who listen to it, and I get concerned about it… I think our job, those of us who have major media assets, is to do our job responsibly. And over time, if we do that, it will ultimately carry the day. I think there are good checks and balances in the system.”
As Journalist Ken Kurson recently noted, “It’s a strong message, but it will take more than a strong message to win over many doubters.”
While some, who are dedicated partisans on the other side of the political spectrum may always see CNN as the President does, many Americans, tired of all the one-sided rhetoric, are looking for a TV news outlet they can trust to give it to them straight.
That will take some doing, but Stankey is saying some things a lot of American news consumers have been wanting to hear for a long time. Things like, “The only way democracy functions well is with a very well-informed and educated electorate…”
This is the kind of thing Jeff Daniels’ character Will McAvoy on the hit HBO series, The Newsroom, might have said. When that show debuted on HBO with a bit of a rant from the McAvoy character about the fallen state of the media, millions of people pointed at their screens and said, “See, that’s how it should be done!”
If Stankey and his team can capture that energy and emotion, CNN could convince some people they are becoming the ideal their new boss says TV news should be.
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