CNN’s “Reliable Sources” aired its final episode on Sunday. As the show addressed the elephant in the room, NPR’s Eric Deggans shared concerns about CNN’s more apolitical direction.
Deggans stated to host Brian Stelter that he thinks the issue with the media’s perception right now is the lens through which it looks at today’s politics and the lack of accountability for politicians who violate the law or use damaging verbiage.
“The problem is that people put a political lens on top of something that is about preserving democracy and about holding politicians accountable,” Deggans said. “When you have one politician who’s denouncing the press as the enemy of the people. When you have one politician who insists that he won an election that he did not win.
“When you have one politician who’s blaming immigrants unfairly for America’s ills, you have to have a journalism apparatus that is free to call out those excesses, without fear of being accused of being unfair. And I think that’s the problem.”
The exit of Stelter and the cancellation of the 30-year-old “Reliable Sources” has some, like Deggans, worried about Licht’s urge to move away from opinion-based news shows and establish a more “neutral” voice.
“I hope that what we’re not going to see CNN do is institute some sort of false equivalence, where the extremism of one party is balanced with the regular dysfunction of another party,” Deggans said.
“We need to be free to call out when someone breaks the law, when someone breaks norms, when someone introduces prejudice and stereotypes into the public debate.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
