Christopher Ruddy
Monday, March 19, 2001

The effect of competition, notably from Fox News Channel, has had a dramatic positive effect on CNN, the cable news giant founded by Ted Turner.

The improvements began in the wake of CNN's ratings decline, as Fox News Channel has gained.

For years, CNN was the only game in town – and it began to look like the rest of the big media.

In fact, CNN personnel like to think of themselves as just one more major news network, like those found at ABC, NBC and CBS.

But cable news, especially programming offered 24 hours a day, demands interesting and exciting content different from that found on the three networks.

And like most major media, CNN began leaning left.

It didn’t start that way. In fact, as NewMax.com pundit John LeBoutillier noted to me recently, CNN was considered a breath of fresh air in the early 1980s, and its approach was considered extremely balanced and neutral, far more than its liberal counterparts on the big networks.

But in the past decade, CNN became part of the media establishment. The media establishment, as we all know, is also very liberal.

Many Americans, particularly independent and Republican viewers, noticed this bias more than ever during the Clinton years.

CNN was not alone in this pro-Clinton bias. The Roper study found in 1992 that 89 percent of the Washington press corps voted for Bill Clinton.

How could such a group claim it was fair, balanced or even representative?

CNN was excessive in its pro-Clinton coverage. Conservatives mockingly nicknamed it "the Clinton News Network," as the once-respected media outlet seemed to be the personal political pet of Ted Turner and Jane Fonda.

CNN would have remained dominant even with the bias had it not been for Rupert Murdoch, who felt the network had gone too far left and started Fox News Channel.

In just a few years, Fox is said to have turned a profit and has even surpassed CNN in some ratings sweeps.

CNN appears to be reacting wisely to the new competition, and it is obvious the network is trying to improve its programming while giving a more balanced presentation of views on its shows.

For example, CNN should be applauded for its recent series on the life of Ronald Reagan, no favorite of the liberal media. The series was one of the best documentaries on Reagan's life and accomplishments ever produced.

Already there is a new sense emanating from CNN programming.

It used to be when the liberal media, including CNN, offered a "conservative" voice, it was an "inside the Beltway" pundit who spent most of his or her time flattering the liberal hosts and making sure to say nothing too controversial.

Fox succeeded because it reached out to voices in "flyover territory" – the rest of America between New York/Washington and the Left Coast – and put them on the air where they discussed issues considered taboo by the major media.

Unfortunately, as CNN begins to dig from under, Ted Turner has made some not-so-funny remarks about Christians. I have never been thin-skinned about uncalled-for comments; more bothersome is the double standard applied by the establishment media. A conservative would be lambasted for making less outrageous comments.

As far I am concerned, whatever distasteful things Ted Turner says are meaningless as long as they are not reflected in the programming and news content of the network.

Though it still has a ways to go, CNN should be encouraged to continue its present path.

If, at the end of the day, CNN becomes as fair as it began two decades ago and offers the American public a source of news that helps them make informed decisions, we can thank Ted Turner – warts and all – for helping to make that possible.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Media Bias

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