About that Alleged Decline of CNN…

There has been a bit of breast-beating among the blogsphere about how CNN has become shite. A few weeks ago, it was All Zimmerman, even as trains crashed and wars broke out. (See here and here, for instance.)

I’m just not convinced it has changed that much. As the Most Profound Philosopher of Our Generation observed almost twelve years ago (late October 2001):

I’m just a singer of simple songs
I’m not a real political man
I watch CNN but I’m not sure I can tell
You the difference in Iraq and Iran

Less than eighteen months later, the Bush Administration was able to exploit that confusion and shift from attacking terrorism to attacking sovereign entities and its own people.

It’s not that CNN has stopped doing their job so much, perhaps, as that they never did.