A recent episode of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” got me thinking about the dangers of not articulating a point of view.
In the episode (excerpted above), Jon Stewart takes the cable newsers to task for their lack of news professionalism. Fox News and MSNBC are savaged for their over-the-top, partisan bias while CNN is mocked for its desperate social media, crowdsourced grasp at relevancy.
The first two are easy targets. With their hyper-opinionated personalities and attack-the-competition strategy, Fox News and MSNBC are ripe for mockery and laughs. Their decision to align their networks with a distinct point of view allows Stewart to turn their broadcasts into easy-to-set-up punchlines. But this point of view has also helped them win in a competitive environment.
Stewart’s take on CNN is less savage and more pity. CNN is mocked not for their point of view but for their apparent lack of one. Instead of being partisan or being news purists, the network has chosen to hedge their bets and to be neither. To essentially ride the middle and not have a point of view. To be, as Stewart jokes when poking fun at CNN’s obsession with having their viewers crowdsource their point of view, “the all like, I know” network.
What has this lack of a point of view meant for CNN? Sadly, it has meant that the pioneer of cable news, the venerable “House that Ted Built” has become less important and less viewed by an increasingly picky cable news viewer. While CNN has ridden the middle and avoided a point of view, Fox News has been the #1 cable news station by an almost 2-1 margin for a staggering seven years and the once seemingly unimportant MSNBC has forced CNN into the #3 spot for the first time ever. My how the mighty have fallen.
The lesson here is that not only is a point of view crucial but it is one that you, and you alone, need to articulate. Without a point of view, the consumer has little to believe in. Without putting it on the line, your brand will have no soul or identity. Fence-sitting and hedging bets works only when you have no competition. When CNN had no Fox News or no MSNBC to worry about, they rode high in the #1 spot. But like CNN, the moment upstart competitors offer up a point of view your lack of one becomes glaring and apparent. And you lose.
So what’s your point of view?
