According to Columbia Journalism Review, CNN will eliminate its entire science, technology and environment news staff, including its chief correspondent.
A source at the network, who asked not to be named, said the move is a strategic and structural business decision to cut staff, unrelated to the current economic downturn. Financially, “CNN is doing very, very well,” the source said, and none of the health and medical news staff has been cut. Yet the big question, of course, is whether or not the reorganization will decrease the overall amount of CNN’s science, technology, and environment coverage. CNN says no, but it’s hard to imagine that it won’t—Anderson Cooper or not, fewer people is fewer people.
Absolutely brilliant and could not be more timely, as people seem especially fed up with all of the public emphasis on and coverage of the environment, particularly as it relates to new technology. It’s oversaturation, something must be done about it and CNN is stepping up. This. Is. CNN.
Oh crap… there’s a funnier line further down in the article. And not funny “ha ha”.
CNN is not the only television network that has been slashing science jobs. According to The Washington Post, “NBC Universal made the first of potentially several rounds of staffing cuts at The Weather Channel [last week], axing the entire staff of the “Forecast Earth” environmental program during the middle of NBC’s ‘Green Week,’ as well as several on-camera meteorologists.”
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