Why I'm Leaving CNN

CNN comes under criticism from the top minds of Reddit on a regular basis:

/r/Wikileaks - Censorship: CNN Cuts feed of Rep. Chris Collins When He Brings Up WikiLeaks

/r/The_Donald - CNN CAUGHT ON OPEN MIC. Tells “focus group” voters what to say about tonight’s debate!!!

/r/HillaryForPrison - CNN Cuts Live Feed When Reporter Talks Poorly of Hillary Clinton

Outrageous! Clearly, I cannot conscionably continue to support such shoddy journalism! I quit!

… Except, these are all conspiracy theories.

I spent the last five years working in CNN’s control rooms, main newsroom and engineering shops, and I guarantee that what some Reddit users see as censorship and corruption really just comes down to unfortunate timing and legitimate technical issues.

Because it would bury the lede, I’ll save that explanation for the end of this post.

Why I’m really Leaving CNN

My wife Haley and I have made the decision to move to Portland, Oregon to be closer to family. The majority of Haley’s family is in Oregon, and my immediate family is in southern California. While there’s no baby on the way right now, there very well might be in the next few years. When that time comes, it would be ideal for our family to be a bit closer than 2,582 miles.

Five years in Atlanta has given me plenty of time to realize that I just don’t feel connected here. Everything and everyone is so spread out, I’ve found myself isolated to home and work. That’s not to say I haven’t tried to get involved with the city’s culture, it’s just that Atlanta is not a good fit.

Portland is a city that I have found myself longing for every time I leave it.

What I’ll Miss

My professional career in IT is really just starting to take off. In just the last year, I made jumps from operations to Tier I support and I’m now in Tier II. Along the way, I’ve been inspired to build so many great projects outside of the scope of my regular work. (Descriptions of that work have now been posted here!) It is tremendously tough to prematurely end this career with CNN, especially with the innovation Turner is fostering in broadcast technology.

Three and a half years ago, we bought our first home. There’s always something special about a first home - memories made, hard work put in. Letting it go is difficult.

What I Won’t Miss

As much as I want to feel connected to the community, embarrassing headlines like, “Neighbors upset about planned mosque in mall” and “Georgia school hosts first racially integrated prom” highlight perfectly why the South is not a good fit for me. I’m not cherry-picking examples, by the way. The amount of tongue-in-cheek racism I’ve personally encountered is mind-boggling.

Atlanta is a car city, through and through. I thought I would get used to commuting 30-60 minutes each way and the traffic that comes with it, but that’s not the case. So many drivers in this city are patently insane, and a good chunk of those who aren’t couldn’t care less about keeping right on the highway and merging properly, contributing to the gridlock Atlanta is famous for. Surely Portland drivers aren’t perfect, but at least Portland has excellent public transit and a city center that people don’t just go to for work.

The Plan

Our first house

My last day is November 18th and Haley’s is the 19th. Our move-out day is December 12, and we’ll be driving to Portland. Our house is now on the market.

Haley’s brother Alex has graciously agreed to let us stay in the house he just bought in Beaverton, at least until we can find new jobs and a place of our own.

Timing of this move couldn’t have been better as far as holidays are concerned. We will be able to enjoy the holidays without worrying about work (as Haley likes to joke, “Like real human beings!”), thanks to some savings. After that, it will be time to pick up our careers where we left them. My goal is to transition from IT support to web development.

I am beyond excited to live in the city where we were married and have felt more connected to than any other.

Now, about those conspiracy theories…

Speaking from my experience in the control room and as an engineer, the last thing anyone at CNN wants is for a feed to cut to black or bars on-air. Support groups even have a special classification for on-air issues. If editorial staff were to intentionally cut a feed, it would be done in the control room, and it certainly would not be to black or bars.

There are a number of reasons for why a feed would cut out. These are some I’ve personally seen:

Loss of video is inherent in live television. It’s unfortunate that it sometimes happens at prime moments for uninformed critics to misinterpret it as intentional.

Thankfully, CNN records most of their live feeds directly - before they hit the control rooms. In the case of Representative Collins, I went back and looked at that direct recording. Sure enough, the feed itself went to bars for about 1 minute and 20 seconds then came back. Absolutely no one in the control room decided to cut him off intentionally.

If you don’t believe me, here’s a screenshot of the keyframes in question:

collins_bars

The same approach was taken when looking into the focus group criticism. Was CNN’s reporter really feeding her answers? No. In the seconds before coming out of the sound byte, the reporter was rallying the group in an attempt to excite them. Then the group member being interviewed looked up at her a bit nervously, so the reporter reminded her of the context (the Clinton sound byte, which the group member couldn’t hear) of the question she was about to ask. Add to this the fact that the same group member was interviewed earlier and also gave a pro-Clinton response.

The silver lining in all of this is that two months from now I will be in Portland and won’t have to worry about this nonsense anymore.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me and Haley learn and grow, both professionally and personally. I cannot wait for what’s next!

Filed under Notes