Website Compares CNN to Other News Outlets (and CNN Doesn’t Look Good)

by Jon Bershad | 3:10 pm, April 29th, 2010

» 15 comments

About five years ago, my homepage when I turned on my internet browser was CNN.com. However, I began to notice a disturbing trend as more and more headlines were about celebrity gossip and other “news”. Soon, I had to change my homepage and that was that. Some programmers, however, have decided to do more than just stop going to CNN.com. They’ve now created a website to show just how low the online presence of the “most trusted name in news” has fallen. The creators of WTF CNN didn’t write an angry screed or create a clever video. Instead, they’ve made the simplest criticism ever, by letting the website speak for itself, side by side with other news sites and, guess what, CNN.com doesn’t look that good.

The way the site works is simple. You go to the main page and you’re greeted by a short letter.

“We deserve better than this.

If you’ve ever been frustrated by what headlines the CNN.com front page, this is the site for you. Compare their front page at any given time to that of Al-Jazeera English (or a host of other mainstream news websites).

Dear CNN,

We know you think this is what we want, but it’s not. We don’t care what random Tweeters think about a news story, how many holograms you have in your Situation Room, or even the latest celebrity gossip.

We care about our world. Instead of using your resources to do the journalism that gives us a better understanding of this world — we get the front page of CNN.com.

Why do we have to look enviously at the front page of Al-Jazeera English for a better sampling of important news stories at any given time? If the CNN frontpage is a reflection of consumer demand, are we to believe that their readers demand real journalism?

Consider this a gentle nudge from the anonymous Internet, CNN.

PS. We still love Wolf’s beard.”

After you click off the letter, you’re see two windows on the screen. The first one shows CNN.com in real time and the second shows a foreign news outlet of your choice. The foreign sites include the BBC, Al-Jazeera, NPR, and Reuters.

Since WTF CNN shows the CNN front page exactly as it is, the evidence against CNN is more or less damning depending on when you sign on. Usually, though, it’s pretty bad. When I signed on, one of the headlines promised a list of the worst movie remakes of all time (That’s right, CNN! You take the Steve Martin version of The Pink Panther down a notch!) while another one featured a “Marimba-playing robot”. Shockingly, the BBC wasn’t carrying either of those stories.

The website was created by Alexis Ohanian of Breadpig and a programmer who goes by Chromakode. In a post on Breadpig, Ohanian had this to say about his new project:

“We basically got tired of seeing the vast difference between quality of content on the CNN.com frontpage and the frontpage of AlJazeera.net. Granted, the disparity provides regular content for redditors.

And while it’s amusing to see CNN appear to try and out-Fark Fark (without the clever headlines) it’s disheartening to think this is the frontpage of ‘news’ the USA is subjected to.”

There will always be room for off-beat news stories. Hell, whenever Mediaite has one, I’m usually the guy asked to write them. However, they probably shouldn’t be getting equal billing on the CNN home page as the story of the giant oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Look, I love CNN. I love the fact that they still try to be unbiased in a world dominated by MSNBC and Fox News. But, if they really want to be the well-respected place for news, their website should reflect that.

(h/t TechCrunch)

al Jazeera, Alexis Ohanian, BBC, Breadpig, Chromakode, CNN, NPR, Reuters, TechCrunch, WTF CNN

Moderate

“in a world dominated by MSNBC”

You must be kidding.
Jon Bershad

And here I tried to put MSNBC first so that Fox fans wouldn’t get angry at me for implying that they were more biased than their rivals on the left and I still get complaints!
How can I make you people happy?!
:)
The Real Royal King

Moderate says:
April 29, 2010 at 3:25 pm

“in a world dominated by MSNBC”

You must be kidding.

—

The topic is websites. In this context, the comment is demonstrably true.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-M-Chick/507482075 Daniel M. Chick

Jon,

no disrespect implied, but you could have left out the whole dig at the two outlets all together. that would have been sufficient. :)
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

Interesting concept and I’ll have to play with it for while. Though to be fair, they might have wanted to compare CNN:I to the other sites because most of them appear to be international editions, while CNN:US is more of a domestic product.
Jon Bershad

Daniel, I see what you’re saying but I wanted to use it to point out what’s good about CNN in an article that was so negative about them. Not to sound like a socialist presidential candidate, but I wanted to spread some of the criticism around.

Magister, good point.
germ

The topic is websites. In this context, the comment is demonstrably true.

I would agree since probably close to 50% of browsers still go to msn.com when starting up because it is Internet Explorer’s default setting.
Arkansas Steve

Jon,
This is a really good article.
CNN and MSNBC are failing, but for very different reasons.

CNN’s problem is not their on-camera people. They’re mostly very good. Although a few are highly liberal partisans, they don’t try to disguise it much, which is a good thing.

No, CNN’s problem is the people who hide behind the camera. They choose left-leaning stories, and write them with little attempt to hide their bias. There is probably just a handful of them – yet they are wrecking the network and could care less. I’m guessing there are 1 or 2 high level executives who hire & instruct them in their story selection & style.

CNN does have good medical/health stories, though.
qawsed

MSNBC’s ratings have skyrocketed since their transition to liberal opinion shows. They regularly beat CNN now.
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The Real Royal King says:
April 29, 2010 at 3:53 pm

Well, yes and no. IF it was about websites, then yes, MSNBC.com beats them all… and in this designer’s opinion, it beats the other’s by a lot. I mean, a lot a lot. But that’s only layout, of course. But from the phrasing above, I don’t think that’s what Jon was talking about. If that was the case, putting FNC’s website in with MSNBC would be a false comparison, as FNC’s website is a mess. So you’re right that MSNBC’s site is better… but I’m pretty confident that wasn’t the gist of Jon’s comment.

qawsed says:
April 29, 2010 at 9:56 pm

MSNBC’s ratings have skyrocketed since their transition to liberal opinion shows. They regularly beat CNN now.

Well… they were skyrocketing for a while… but they’ve begun to fall back to Earth, and have been for a while now. They’re way down off their highs, and declining. That’s not to say CNN is fairing any better… but “skyrocketING” is an over statement.
annejaa

Well today MSNBC and Fox is more popular and focus on the news in which people are interested and so CNN’s ratings are being low.MSNBC.com is so good and beat all the news channels.
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marcus.lewis

CNN lost me with their redesign of their site. I think it is just painful to look at, and they also removed the one feature that made me love them–their online newscasts. They had some very good news coverage on cnn.com/live but pulled it. Whoever is CNN head of tech/web development should be forced to turn in his resignation.
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When did Pat Buchanan buy MSNBC? He is on almost every daily show of the network. I think it’s finally safe to visit after 6:00 pm est…BTW, did you all know that Morning Joe was a congressman in Florida? Don’t worry, if you forget, he’ll remind you every five minutes.
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