CNN announced this week it is making a dramatic shift in editorial strategy by shutting down its opinion section on its website. This move, which comes amid wide disruption to the news media, is likely a repositioning of the network from opinion-driven commentary back to its roots as a straight news provider, with a clear separation between the two sections.

The repositioning is being led by CEO Mark Thompson, and is part of a raft of “sweeping” changes that represent a “key milestone in the transformation of CNN,” according to a memo to staff from Thompson published last month.

Chris Licht, Thompson’s predecessor, had carried out a series of high-profile firings and restructuring, including laying off two of the network’s biggest stars in Don Lemon and Brian Stelter, and cancelling the latter’s media-focused show. In this age of misinformation, disinformation and fake news, the move was seen as an effort to reduce the network’s partisan image and appeal to a broader audience.

CNN’s decision is no doubt heavily influenced by the wider challenges facing the media industry. The sector has experienced a wave of layoffs and closures, with many organisations struggling to adapt to the rapidly changing online landscape. In just the past two years, the industry has seen the shuttering of BuzzFeed News and the bankruptcy of Vice Media, as well as layoffs at major broadcast and print news companies. According to Politico, around 500 journalists were let go in January 2024 alone.

It is a tough market and given the ubiquity of opinion, CNN obviously thinks winning the trust of viewers through non-partisan reporting is the best strategic pivot to restore its reputation as a premium news brand. The network will continue to provide in-house commentary, but it will be siloed in its major shows rather than interwoven with coverage on its website and app.

But will this course correction take? CNN has made a series of damaging missteps on some major stories. This includes years-long reporting of unfounded claims that Donald Trump had colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, a scandal now known as Russiagate, as well as the refusal to properly report on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.

CNN’s opinion-inflected reporting came to a head during the pandemic when Joe Rogan confronted the channel’s medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta about its characterisation of his use of ivermectin. “I can afford people medicine, motherf*cker,” Rogan said to Gupta in a not-so-veiled accusation that CNN had intentionally misrepresented the drug as a “horse tranquiliser”, which sparked a broader debate about media accuracy and integrity.

All in all, the decision to excise the opinion section is an admission by the network of past mistakes and a need to regain trust and credibility. By focusing on factual reporting and clearly separating news from opinion, CNN hopes to position itself as a reliable source of information in an increasingly polarised media landscape.

But opinion is tantalising, and reserved fact-checking is often dull work. It is, however, necessary. Given its history, it’s unlikely that these moves will be enough to combat the widespread perception that the network is fatally biased, but it is at least moving in the right direction.

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Ashley Rindsberg is author of The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’ Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History

AshleyRindsberg

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