What Is CNN For? (Samantha Bee Edition)

It is extremely easy to make fun of CNN. All those shouty . That over-reliance on ALL-CAPS CHYRONS sharing . That time . Et cetera. The easy mockery is a case of great power bringing great—and, often, dashed—expectations: CNN, after all, frames itself as a nonpartisan news source, the place you’d go, all apologies to the Fox News Channel and MSNBC, when you’d prefer not so much to live in the comfort of your bubble as to have that bubble productively punctured. It’s smart branding that comes, implicitly, with a hefty journalistic challenge: CNN, presenting