CNN has bad week amid April Ryan, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon news: ‘It was quite embarrassing’
It’s been another rough week for
CNN as the network suddenly has a plethora of
off-screen issues in addition to its
usual ratings struggles.
“Just when one thought things couldn't get any worse for CNN, they did,” NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News.
“In CNN's current form, they've always had putrid ratings, disingenuous personalities and a pathetic inability to simply cover the news – instead fearmongering the small, anti-Trump audience into submission – but this past week was possibly the worst ever in totality.”
The liberal news network started off the week making headlines for the wrong reasons. “CNN Tonight” host Don Lemon was accused in a civil suit of a sexually charged assault of a bartender in New York's posh Hamptons area last year. The same evening that the Lemon news broke, on Tuesday, video circulated of CNN political analyst April Ryan looking on while a local news editor appeared to be violently removed from an event where she was a keynote speaker.
The Lemon and Ryan headlines came less than 24 hours after video of “Cuomo Prime Time” namesake Chris Cuomo threatening a man who called him “Fredo” went viral, capturing the attention of President Trump in the process.
"This was not a good week to be CNN. In addition to its abysmal ratings, three of its top news personalities are embroiled in scandal and controversy," Cornell University Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told Fox News.
"In a rational world, CNN leadership would implement a dramatic course correction, but there is no sign that rationality prevails at CNN,” he said.
DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall told Fox News that these latest controversies "surely complicate the overall image of CNN” amid a ratings crisis. CNN has struggled to attract viewers during the Trump administration and recently finished July as the No. 13 network on basic cable, averaging only 797,000 primetime viewers and shedding 11 percent of its audience compared to July 2018.
CNN’s
most-watched program during July was “Cuomo Prime Time,” which finished No. 24 overall among cable news, behind 14 different Fox News shows and nine programs on MSNBC. It remains to be seen if the negative press will push CNN’s viewership further down the gutter, but McCall certainly doesn’t think it will help.
“News organizations never want to be the subject of news and CNN has allowed itself to become just that. No news outlet is immune from occasional bad publicity in this day and age, but some of CNN's latest difficulties were avoidable,” McCall said. “Odds are that loyal CNN viewers will not depart because of the negative reports coming out about high profile CNN personalities, but this kind of negative publicity likely scares away less devoted viewers or potential viewers.”
CNN has bad week amid April Ryan, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon news: ‘It was quite embarrassing’
