HLN: CNN’s Red-Headed Stepchild

Nancy Grace doing what she does best. Talking forever
Nancy Grace doing what she does best. Talking forever

I’m a bit of a news nerd. I wake up in the morning and on a regular basis and turn on some form of news broadcasting. However, I find local news does not really teach me anything about news, and just reminds me why I dropped my Broadcast Journalism major and switched over to Poli Sci. Joking aside, I prefer to watch a news program with more international and national stories and fewer stories about deer breaking into a local pool.

While CNN has been the best forum for me to find international news stories, I’ve found that having 24 hours of news leads to mass repeating of the same stories. For the most part, though, it is tolerable, and I have to say, I love that Anderson Cooper.

Occasionally, though, in my drowsy early morning state, I forget which channel CNN is and, there being a one channel difference, I end up watching HLN.

Now although they are related, HLN is hardly tolerable at all. One morning last week I woke up to Robin Meade, CNN’s resident cheerleader, at 6am talk three times within one hour about a female college soccer player who roughed up another player. Now, I expect there to be some repeat on a 24-hours news channel. However, it would be nice if the stories they repeated were somewhat important. However interesting this violent, testosterone-filled soccer player was, I couldn’t help but wondering, why is this considered news?

The other morning I switched from CNN, which was reporting on Hilary Clinton visting Afghanistan, to HLN, which was at the same exact time talking about banning the declawing of cats. You tell me which channel is more credible.

And that’s just the morning shows. Nancy Grace spends the entirety of her program ranting about whatever the most sensational news topic of the day is – for example, I swear she spent about a month going on about the Caylee Anthony case. Her harping, loud voice and vicious remarks make me wonder if she would be better suited on Fox or MSNBC.

There’s also Jane Velez-Mitchell and her show that I would liken to a  “Diet Nancy Grace” and Clark Howard and his wannabe-Jim Kramer financial advice show.

The point is, the reason I watch CNN is because I expect it to actually report on things that are important in the world today. And although I find the main network (Channel 19 on our BUTV systems) acceptable, HLN is just insulting to journalism. I would suggest CNN just get rid of it entirely, and sell Nancy Grace to Fox. If CNN doesn’t get its act together, I might have to start watching C-SPAN.

Read on to find out what almost redeems CNN of their HLN shame. Almost….

About Deanna Falcone

Deanna Falcone (CAS '11) is a liberal political columnist for the Quad. She is a political science major and is originally from Danbury, Connecticut.

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