It’s always entertaining to watch CNN pretend to be a journalistic institution. They stack their panels with two left-wingers, throw in Ana Navarro, another left-winger pretending to be a "conservative," and top it off with Abby Phillip, a so-called "moderator," masquerading as neutral. The whole setup is as transparent as your dog trying to pretend it doesn't have the super-hearing it uses to identify your car engine from half a mile away, but somehow can't hear you when you're 20 feet away calling it to come inside the house. And yet, CNN still expect us to believe they provide objective news.
The saddest part is that they barely even try to mask it. There’s no effort, no subtlety, just blatant left-wing advocacy dressed up as news reporting. They parade around their slogan, “The Most Trusted Name in News,” yet nothing they produce resembles actual journalism. It’s all editorialized spin. They don’t inform; they persuade. They don’t report; they reinforce. They don't fairly quote; they show misleading partial video clips that completely change the meaning of what was said (i.e. "There were good people on both sides"). The lack of respect they have for their audience is staggering.
CNN does not care to hire Walter Cronkite, they want a young, biased, and compliant Abby Phillip who doesn't mind being disingenuous in order to adhere to the company's editorial guidelines. They are not in the business of journalism. To understand CNN's egregious behavior, you have to wrap your mind around their business model, because at the end of the day, they are simply selling a product.
Here’s the problem... Today's news is a business, and businesses sell what people want to buy, and what exactly do people want to buy? Comfort. Validation. Certainty. They don’t want the truth. The truth is inconvenient. The truth disrupts. The truth forces people to confront realities that might shake their worldview, and that’s work.
If I hear something true, something that contradicts my beliefs, what happens next? I have to reevaluate my politics, my business relationships, my friendships, maybe even my marriage. That’s exhausting. Nobody has time for that. Instead, people seek shortcuts. They want soundbites, not analysis. Narratives, not nuance. They outsource thinking to someone they trust so they don’t have to filter the chaos of the world themselves.
So, what is CNN really selling? All you have to do is revisit their slogan. Trust is a product, and CNN is selling it.
This isn’t just about laziness or partisanship, it’s hardwired into the brain. The human mind runs on schemas, mental frameworks that organize and interpret information. These schemas help us navigate the world efficiently, but they also make us resistant to change. When new information contradicts our existing beliefs, our brain perceives it as a threat, not just an intellectual challenge, but an actual, physiological stressor.
The brain fights paradigm shifts on a cellular level. When confronted with information that doesn’t fit our established worldview, the amygdala, the brain’s emotional response center, triggers a stress reaction. This isn’t a metaphor; it’s a neurological defense mechanism. It releases cortisol and adrenaline, activating the same "fight or flight" response we experience when in danger.
This means that, for many people, hearing contradictory information doesn’t just feel uncomfortable, it feels like an attack. Their body reacts to it as if they are being physically threatened. That’s why people instinctively reject news that challenges their deeply held beliefs. The brain actively resists reality when reality is inconvenient.
CNN (and every other media outlet) knows this. They don’t just report the news, they manufacture emotional safety. They shape narratives in a way that keeps their audience comfortable, keeps them feeling right, and most importantly, keeps them watching.
To be clear, CNN isn’t unique in this deception. Right-wing media outlets do the exact same thing, crafting news in a way that reinforces the beliefs of their viewers rather than challenging them. It’s a two-sided industry designed not to inform, but to comfort.
That said, in recent years, right-wing media has shown a stronger commitment to reality than left-wing outlets. Not because they’re noble truth-seekers, but because the left has spiraled so far into ideological fanaticism that simply reporting basic facts, acknowledging biological reality, recognizing economic consequences, or discussing crime statistics now appears “right-wing” by default.
That doesn’t mean the truth belongs to the right. The truth, as always, is somewhere in between. But finding it requires effort, research, fact-checking, independent analysis. And most people don’t have the resources, the time, or the responsibility to do that level of work. And why should they?
People are busy. They have jobs, families, responsibilities. Expecting the average person to personally investigate every major news story isn’t realistic. That’s why we once had real journalists, people who did the hard work of uncovering facts and holding the powerful accountable. But the modern media landscape has abandoned that mission. Journalism isn’t about truth anymore, it’s about ratings, advertisers, and audience retention. If your journalism product turns people off, advertisers will stop patronizing your media outlet, and then what will you do? That's why we're seeing shakeups in companies like MSNBC finally firing Joy Reid, because their ratings are so low that YouTube podcasts easily get substantially higher numbers of views. That's telling. It seems that selling trust is working, but only for people who come across as credible and authentic, and the public has decided that MSNBC and CNN no longer fits the bill.
We live in a time of information overload. News moves at light speed. By the time I finish researching one issue, a thousand more are breaking. It’s impossible to keep up. And in a world where technological advancements are accelerating at breakneck speed, the overwhelm is profound.
The more change we experience, the more stressed we become. And today, change is constant. The world is on a fast track to Anxietyville, and people aren’t looking for more questions. They’re looking for certainty.
That’s where CNN comes in. They don’t provide journalism, they provide an emotional safety net, an echo chamber where their audience can feel safe and avoid having their worldview challenged on a regular basis. Make no mistake, CNN's self-appointed job isn’t to educate you; it’s to make sure you eel good. Because the second they start telling you the truth, the real unvarnished, uncomfortable, paradigm-shifting truth... you’ll immediately stop watching their network, and they know that.
CNN doesn't want to be the next "Morning Joe" on the liberal/progressive hit list. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski instantly lost their audience when they announced an interview with Trump, because after years of calling Trump "Hitler" they decided to stop name-calling, and actually sit down to talk with him. As soon as they did that, their hardcore left-wing audience felt completely betrayed, and rightfully so, because why would these anchors go explore the truth by talking to "Hitler"?
And that is why CNN needs you to believe that they’re “The Most Trusted Name in News.” Not because it's true, but because their entire business model, and for that matter, their very survival depends on it.
