The mind-numbing CNN panel became a bona fide public menace during the 2016 election. The network would assemble a horde of hyper-partisan talking heads to react to seemingly each and every news event. In the end, the segment would almost inevitably—though not always—leave the viewer less informed, but certainly outraged and, most importantly, watching CNN. Journalists with serious chops, like Anderson Cooper, were forced to babysit these displays of debate-as-performance-art while only occasionally getting input from actual political analysts and experts.

Jon Lovett, the former Obama speechwriter turned podcast maven, took particular issue with the panels. But his main gripe seemed to be with the appointed Trump defenders who always feature—and who are paid, inexplicably, by a news network to defend a politician full-time. While he didn't name names (Brain Stelter did: "Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany"), Lovett was ruthless in his assessment, calling the Trump-siders "stupid" and claimed that some amounted to a "bullshit factory."

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Of course, this has long been a problem for CNN, which has so far chosen not to chase ratings by hurtling in a single ideological direction, a la Fox News. Instead, CNN has tried to thrive on conflict, where pundits and spin artists put on a jersey for one of the teams—liberal or conservative—and fight it out for your infotainment. This was the issue Jon Stewart pinpointed a lifetime ago in 2005, when he joined CNN's Crossfire and tore apart the show's format and style. It was canceled a few months later:

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The problem of "silly, craven people," in Lovett's words, who aren't intellectually honest or interested in informing the public, is age-old. It wasn't invented by CNN. But CNN has relied heavily on what amounts to pro wrestling-as-political discourse for years. While the network struggled in the ratings department compared to the juggernaut that is Fox News, the 2016 campaign boosted CNN's health immensely. Maybe it's time for a break from what, as Jon Stewart once said, has been "hurting America."

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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