A new exposé by non-profit journalism group Project Veritas reveals how CNN uses COVID-19 fear to boost its ratings. The revelations give a good look at how the media operates and thrives on amping up the sense of danger.
The network has been leveraging the fact that humans naturally have an appetite for news concerning danger because of self-preservation.
“COVID? Gangbusters with ratings,” CNN’s technical director Charles Chester said, in the video leaked by Project Veritas. “Which is why we constantly have the death toll on the side.”
Chester even admitted to wanting the numbers to be higher for the sake of the network’s ratings, although he said he was ashamed of wanting that.
“Let’s make it higher, like why isn’t it high enough, you know, today? Like it would make our point better if it was higher,” Chester said. “And I’m like, what am I f***ing rallying for? That’s a problem that we’re doing that. You know?”
According to Chester, CNN would want to report a higher death toll because of fear. “Like, fear really drives numbers,” he said, referring to TV ratings. “Fear is the thing that keeps you tuned in. If it bleeds, it leads. No one ever says those things out loud, but it’s obvious.”
Chester also admitted that CNN is biased, explaining that delivering unbiased news is “impossible.”
“There’s no such thing as unbiased news. It just doesn’t exist. Any reporter on CNN, what they’re actually doing is they’re telling the person what to say,” he said. “It’s always like leading them in a direction before they even open their mouths. And the only people we will let on the air, for the most part, are people that have a proven track record of taking the bait.”
