Real Reason Behind CNN’s Undoing? Network’s Bias

Elizabeth Jensen’s news analysis of the decline of CNN (“Where Did CNN’s Pioneer Spirit Go?,” Sept. 1) leaves out the main reason I, and many people I know, stopped watching--a concern over bias.

The former CNN/USA President Rick Kaplan is a well-known friend of the Clinton administration. Of course, news anchors and executives being human, that in itself is not a problem. It became a problem for me, as a viewer, when reports surfaced of Kaplan’s visiting the White House and staying there overnight! I began wondering whether certain facts about the administration were not being reported, or whether a pro-Clinton slant was being put on the news.

Perhaps neither ever occurred; however, my confidence in CNN’s objectivity was greatly damaged and now, with the “resignation” of Kaplan, can only begin to be restored.

JOHN AMATO

Sherman Oaks

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As a viewer, I can break it down to an even simpler reason for CNN’s problems: CNN is biased and visibly so. There is little objectivity. The anchors such as Bernard Shaw are indistinguishable from the Dan Rathers and the Peter Jenningses. With choices available, intelligent viewers will go where they can find more fairness and honesty in reporting.

A joke that has circulated for years is to call CNN the “Clinton News Network.” That is not funny. CNN could only thrive in the past because of a lack of choices. Now that other choices abound, I look forward to the day when CNN is not one of them.

DANA PELELLA

Warwick, N.Y.

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Jensen makes what may be some valid points, but the demise for now of CNN--and of the traditional Big Three networks it has come to emulate--is due primarily to their uninspired and lackluster perspective on the day’s events. They are unwilling to step beyond the confines of what reactionary liberalism dictates to them.

At the risk of being ungracious, this is also the reason that the big print media outlets--the L.A. Times, N.Y. Times and others--are in danger of losing influence and circulation.

When David Letterman makes the N.Y. Times the subject of a Top 10 list, the populace at large is starting to become aware that the big media can safely be ignored.

GREGORY A. CLARK

Somers, N.Y.

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