The ongoing disasterclass intra-Republican Party congressional battle over the speakership has dominated the news cycle since the beginning of the new year. It’s a fascinating story-cum-civics class that lays bare some of the weakest links in the GOP caucus. It’s great fodder for cable news panels.
As a result, viewers of CNN have been treated to more insights and opinions from Republican officials this week than what feels like the last few years combined, which is good for the viewer and the body politic but says more about the state of the GOP than it does CNN.
Since taking over the network last year, one of the top goals for CNN CEO Chris Licht has been not just to make his network a more welcome place for Republican officials but actually to get them on the network. I wrote last May last year that the first step in his plan to bring CNN back to the center — and better ratings — was to convince Republican officials to get back on its airwaves.
CNN really wants the world to know
This is good news for CNN, as well as for a body politic that seemed headed to the ICU two years ago. In a highly tribalized political landscape and balkanized cable news ecosystem that rewards like-minded profundities packaged as hot takes, it’s good that viewers are seeing more political diversity.
But the spate of GOP officials on the network says way more about the state of the GOP than it does the network.
Recall why Republicans abandoned CNN in the first place: Former President Donald Trump directed an astounding quantity of vitriol toward CNN, which he described as the “enemy of the people.” In the last two years of his administration, scant Republicans would appear on the network because of Trump’s power.
But as we’ve seen in the disastrous midterm results for Trump-endorsed candidates — and more recently with the impotent influence Trump has had on the speakership vote — Republicans are no longer living in fear of angering the 45th president by appearing on CNN. And so they are.
Again, the news coverage of the speakership vote has nearly been wall-t0-wall. And the entirety of the story focuses on the intra-party dynamics of the GOP. So it
Now just like the speaker vote — there is a 10% sector of hardcore Republicans that are not going on CNN, nor likely ever will. And that’s a real shame. I would pay serious money for a pay-per-view interview between Jake Tapper, Jim Jordan, or Josh Hawley. Watching Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Greene interviewed by Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, or Kaitlyn Collins? I’m popping popcorn.
Maybe one day we will see that. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that Lindsey Graham, Mark Meadows, and even Jordan would appear on CNN New Day for a fascinating interview with Alysn Camerota or Chris Cuomo. It was an era that still had the last vestiges of a healthy relationship between media and politics that was all but snuffed out by the end of Trump’s nasty reign. It was only five years ago.
Bully for CNN for getting GOP officials back on the air. That’s a good thing. But the more encouraging news is how this reflects on an evolving Republican party no longer cowing to threats from Trump and willing to engage in respectful and informative dialog.