By Frank Coletti
Communications and New Media Major

According to Pew Research, 71% of people 18- 29 get news from the Internet and not subject to watching “what’s on” television because of the Internet’s ability to pick indulgences. As a fellow Internet news follower I decided to try going against the grain and studied CNN’s 24 hour news cast. I started watching at 9 A.M and it was 9:16 A.M. before they broke from “Je Suis Charlie.” The next story illustrated the new scrutiny over Obama’s budget and the Homeland Security Funding. The focus of the hour was clearly the satirical newspaper’s involvement with a terrorist’s thwart and its ripple but what was bothering was the repetition at the top of the hour.
To put things in perspective over the past year (January-September 2014 compared with the same period in 2013), CNN’s prime-time audience has “declined by a quarter to a median viewership of 495,000”, according to Nielsen Media Research. This business, protected by the first amendment, needs a boost of viewership.
“Je Suis Charlie” was an incident of twenty people including two police officers and nine Charlie Hebdo employees murdered over Islamic Extremist retaliation for the Prophet Muhammad’s cartoon depiction going into publication.
On the same day of “Je Suis Charlie” the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram massacred 2,000 of their civilians. CNN’s website covered the story, but their live feed did not. Why? Many of Portland’s residents are African refugees who would of benefitted from the live coverage. There must be a fundamental difference between what goes on air and what gets printed.
The Islamic world was overturned by World War I, but it was the dust that settled that bellowed the real fire. According to Al Jazeera, “the boundaries of the modern Middle East were drawn up after the war ended by French diplomat Francois Georges-Picot and British officer Sir Mark Sykes, out of territory lost by the Ottoman Empire.” Many attribute this incident to the inception of American Insurgency, and terrorist groups like ISIL want these borders abolished.
The Atlantic covered a similar story in 2012.  “Europe’s arbitrary post-colonial borders left Africans bunched into countries that don’t represent their heritage, a contradiction that still troubles them today.” The article explains the more democratic Africa dispute secession claims at International Courts of Justice, like when Nigeria and Cameroon disputed the rights to the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula in 2011.
After World War II European-African colonialism collapsed and first generation African leaders decided to respect the arbitrary borders to minimize disputes over natural resources. However, the cultural impact has become the problem. The people are nationalized together with no history or acknowledgement. Likewise, to ISIL, Boko Haram understands this injustice. Boko Haram translates to “western education is sin.”
Third party border creation has lead to problems in countries like Burkina, who were drawn with no natural resources, and in countries like Syria, where poorly executed cultural borders lead to constant religious warfare. However, the diplomatic farce has no connection to CNN’s bias on the “Je Suis Charlie” incident.
There’s curiosity when a piece of art is scrutinized, especially on a global scale, so critiquing the actual depiction Charlie Hebdo printed is too daunting a task to tackle, but any loss of a human life over the hands of an Art is a boondoggle of loco and a very unfortunate outcome of French-Arab integration. Art is always for the celebration of life, and satire falls into that spectrum.
Satire is not for everybody. I remember learning about Jonathan Swift in High School and it divided the class room. “A Modest Proposal’s” serious tone acted as a catalyst of humility and, coincidentally, birthed modern entertainment; some see it as glorified bullying. When writing indulges in superficial behaviors like categorizing or stereotyping to ironically present a more dimensional issue.
South Park has this ability and masks profound philosophy into raunchy, gut wrenching entertainment. Charlie Hebdo creates the same enlightenment concealed with cynicism. If there was a global freedom of press, satire would have a lot less pressure, and this event might have been avoided. But if artistic stands need to happen to protect the Freedom of Speech then we have to accept that inevitability.
Charlie Hebdo and CNN’s mutual interest around the first amendment could explain CNN’s news firestorm. Islamic Extremist were fearful of the image of Muhammad going into print but the backlash of hindering the globe’s Freedom of Press lead to a religiously unbiased movement. A beautiful example of humanity. And a good way to get viewership.
CNN’s push for viewership by repetitive format can be seen as a form of bias and can lead to American-Muslim tensions. According to Al Jazeera America, “The French Council for the Muslim Religion said its recent study found that 128 anti-Muslim actions or threats were recorded in France, not including Paris, from Jan. 7 through Jan. 20, in comparison to 133 in all of France, including Paris, in 2014.”
Hindsight will illuminate CNN’s strategies to boost viewership but in the end the common denominator is freedom. Citizens burdened by third party border control feel insurgency because lack of feeling free. Stifling citizen’s Freedom of Press also creates an insurgency due to lack of freedom.
In the mean time of a global understanding of cultures, CNN’s ergonomically fashioned Internet news of unbiased global information acts as the catalyst and should be mimicked by the live feed.