I understand why CNN is losing ratings. I already said that I feel that CNN has become Fox News Lite in my post on the VP debate, but I decided to dig a bit deeper into the subject and I think I’m on to something.   You can’t position yourself as a neutral news source and then stack “the best political team on TV” with more Republicans than Democrats.  You also can’t pretend that the team is neutral when most members have an obvious slant towards the Republican party.

CNN lists 23 Republican political contributors vs. 14 Democratic contributors.  As for political analysts, while their political affiliation is not listed, I believe that Jack Cafferty, Candy Crowley, Bill Schneider and John King are Republican, while Gloria Borger and Jeffrey Toobin are Democratic.  That’s 4 Republican vs. 2 Democratic political analysts.  David Gergen is usually neutral. But, at last night’s post-debate discussion, he was showing a definite pro-Romney slant.

If we turn to anchors, Wolf Blitzer cannot hide his satisfaction when he reads post-debate results that favor Mitt Romney.  John King and Candy Crowley try hard to sound neutral but they always say something that gives away their pro-GOP positions.  By the way, Crowley did a pretty good job of staying neutral at the debate, but seeing the backlash that she’s getting from Republicans for fact-checking and correcting Romney (in other words, her job as moderator), let’s watch if she backtracks in the days to come.  Anderson Cooper seems to me to be the most neutral anchor and I believe that he’s a Democrat.

In conclusion, CNN News is not a neutral network (as it positions itself) and it’s also not a liberal news network.  CNN’s liberal bias is a myth, while its conservative bias is a reality.

As much as I hate Fox News and what they do, at least everyone knows that they are a platform for the Republican party. Yes, I find their “Fair & Balanced” slogan ridiculous, considering that their reporting is unfair and unbalanced, but I’m used to this political oppositespeak from the Grand Old Party.

I have read articles that declare that CNN is suffering because the media landscape has changed, that there is no room for non-partisan reporting:  a news channel needs to be either on the left or the right.  I don’t agree with this.  CNN is suffering because they are pretending to be neutral when they’re not, and no one likes a fake.