Column: The Reasons Why CNN Ended My Breaking News Addiction
The streaming service's demise shows network news bosses still don't have a clue about how viewers want to digest the news that comes at breakneck speed
My name is Joe Bel Bruno, and I’m addicted to the news. CNN has been my habit of choice.
Lockdowns during the pandemic gave news junkies exactly what we needed — constant access to the relentless pace of 2020’s turbulent events — COVID breakouts, the George Floyd shooting, Black Lives Matter protests, and the presidential election. The dramatic theme music played before a “Breaking News” banner splashed across the screen was intoxicating for folks like us.
Now, I’m asking CNN’s news staff to help retrain me in how to consume the vastly different pace and feel of its new streaming service CNN+.
The new offering had no “Breaking News Alerts” every 15 minutes, there were no roundtable fights with guests and anchors breathlessly talking over one another, nobody raised their voice, and the pacing was deliberate and calm.
Stories were simply given the time to breath. Nothing was rushed. And guests weren’t booked as some kind of mixed martial arts cage match, but to intelligently discuss the topic.