When CNN launched on June 1, 1980, Ted Turner's vision of a 24-hour news network was truly revolutionary. For decades, the American people turned to the then-credible network to watch breaking news on major events, such as the Gulf War and the fall of the Berlin War.
In CNN's early years, respected journalist and anchor Bernard Shaw, along with credible correspondents like Daniel Schorr, brought the network gravitas. The success led to the spinoff of the 24-hour CNN Headline News channel as the network's global reach continued to rapidly expand. Yes, CNN was the news juggernaut of the planet.
But my oh my, how the mighty fall.
As CNN "celebrated" its 45th anniversary on Sunday, the one-time "most trusted name in news" had become a joke. How should I put it? The embattled network's ratings have not only steadily and precipitously declined; they're so far down the ratings toilet that not even Roto-Rooter could pull them out.
Consider the following headlines from just the last year:
July 12, 2024: CNN’s primetime ratings cratered 92% the day after presidential debate: Nielsen
Aug. 2024: 'Paid for Ratings' - CNN Rating Drops 96% Causing CNN to Fire 100 Employees
Jan 31, 2025: CNN and MSNBC report worst ratings month EVER in key demographic - while Fox News enjoys its best
April 27, 2025:
CNN Ratings Disaster: Primetime Audience Tumbles Below 500,000
Two things have become painfully clear (for the left, that is) about CNN:
First, The no-longer "most trusted name in news" veered left, and drastically not only changed its approach to covering the news, but even worse, CNN's hosts and commentators changed their analysis of the news, giving far more airtime to leftist groupspeak and far less time to voices of reason — regardless in some cases of party affiliation.
Second, despite the above, the embattled network, while firing the likes of hosts Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, has largely refused to take heed — and react accordingly — to the root causes of its historic decline.
Why? Most critically, three words: Trump Derangement Syndrome.
CNN's 24/7 obsession with all things Trump has been the self-destructing outlet's Achilles heel for nearly 10 years — stretching back to June 2015, when Donald, with wife Melania Trump at his side, rode down the famous "golden escalator" in Trump Tower to make his 2016 presidential election campaign announcement.
Flying Wingman for the Democrats and Rabid Left
As if the grip of TDS on CNN wasn't enough to lead to the outlet's historic fall, the late Ted Turner's dream network has all become the quasi-official mouthpiece of the Democrat Party, the rabid left, and associated controversies — most notably, so-called "transgenderism," including male athletes (pretending to be females) beating the bejesus out of female athletes in female sporting events.
Toss in CNN's sharp criticism of Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as the Jewish state continues to wage war against the Palestinian-based terrorist group Hamas in the aftermath of the latter's horrific Oct. 7, 2023 attack inside Israel that claimed the lives of roughly 1,300 Israelis.
ALSO CHECK OUT: Mark Levin Decimates 'Stupid' CNN Host for Defending Harvard's Fostering of Antisemitism, 'Racist DEI'
Clearly — to the honest and objective among us, that is — as survey after survey has shown, CNN (along with MSNBC) has chosen to remain on the wrong side of the partisan divide, opting for leftist ideology over ratings and profitability.
Yep, CNN’s one-time reputation for neutrality is no more. So what else could go wrong for the embattled network, you ask?
Two words: Jake Tapper.
While Tapper certainly hasn't been the Lone Ranger of left-wing "journalists" who aided and abetted the Biden White House's paranoid efforts to conceal the steady cognitive decline of former President Joe Biden, the smug host has been among the most vociferous in his insistence that he neither saw nor heard virtually anything that led him to conclude to that Biden's brain was indeed shot — and that the 82-year-old had reached the point where he shouldn't have been anywhere near the Oval Office as America's chief executive.
Then came Tapper's controversial book, commonly referred to as "Original Sin," and his shamelessly shilling book tour. And the gall of it all is the book's entire title, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.
ALSO CHECK OUT: Jake Tapper and His Co-Author Expose the Grift Behind Their Book on Biden's Senility
Tapper's histrionic efforts to twist himself into an irrational pretzel, throwing virtually every other left-wing "journalist" under the bus for failing to report on Biden's decline — which was obvious to most of us when Biden conducted his ridiculous 2020 presidential election "basement campaign" — and trying to exonerate himself of his obvious duplicity, all while shilling for cash, has been a disaster.
Yeah, this is CNN, alright, and Jake Tapper is still atop his perch at America's least trusted name in news.
