CNN is All-Economy, All-Week

by allison ~ March 18, 2009

It reminds me of the coverage on The Weather Channel when a big hurricane is coming and 24 hours a day, nothing is reported except ”the storm of the century.”

Well, today’s real-life storm of the century is the economic crisis we are facing and in an effort to differentiate itself from other affiliations, CNN is focusing an entire week to the economy in a special called “Road to the Rescue: The CNN Survival Guide,” which I find really depressing.  

According to the New York Times, “Jonathan Klein, president of CNN’s domestic networks, said the network would fill all the ‘optional time,’ that is, between breaking news, this week with financial reporting and analysis that reflects ‘a cool, collected approach.’ That message is consistent with the channel’s intention to brand itself as the news channel that delivers information without what it would describe as the partisan flavorings of Fox News Channel (right) and MSNBC (left). New CNN has devoted single days to coverage of a topic, like race relations and autism in the past, but Mr. Klein said this will be the first time CNN has thrown all its resources against one subject for a week.”

Mediabistro reports, “…Beginning Monday, “all dayside and primetime shows, anchors and correspondents will focus on the economic crisis both at home and around the world. That includes Anderson Cooper, who hit the road for AC 360 to report live from five cities (New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Detroit and Tampa) on the effects of the economic crisis.”

It will be interesting to see and compare how different cities are affected by the economic crisis. As we all know everyone and every city are affected by the crisis, but some more than others.

Some of the topics discussed on CNN this week will include: jobs, personal debt, education, housing, health care, and income. 

 Check out Road to the Rescue here: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/news/road.to.rescue/

Allison Berger is on staff at Mediashop Public Relations and holds a BA in Communications Studies from University of Iowa.