CNN: Breaking News, Today's Top Stories & What the Data Shows
Generated Title: The CNN-Trump-Weiss Media Vortex: A Data Analyst's Descent into Madness
The Lakanwal Anomaly: A Statistical Outlier?
The news cycle's been a predictable dumpster fire lately (as always, really), but a few threads are starting to weave together in ways that even I find… concerning. First, CNN reported that Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the suspect in the National Guard shooting near the White House, had his asylum application approved under the Trump administration. Lakanwal, an Afghan national, entered the US under Biden's Operation Allies Welcome.
Now, the immediate reaction is to point fingers. Was this a failure of vetting? A political stunt? A data point to support stricter immigration policies? Miller on `cnn news` pointed out the timeline, and that Lakanwal had to have done work for or with the US in Afghanistan. But let's hold on a second. We're talking about one individual. How many Afghans were brought in under Operation Allies Welcome? The number is estimated to be around 76,000. One incident doesn't define a program, but it does raise questions about the efficacy of the screening process.
What's the baseline risk here? What percentage of refugees, generally, commit violent crimes? The data is surprisingly murky (definitions of "refugee" and "violent crime" vary wildly), but even a slightly elevated risk, multiplied by 76,000, starts to look like a statistically significant problem. Where's the deep dive on the numbers? Where's the objective risk assessment? Or is everyone too busy playing politics?
The Trump-Media Feedback Loop: A Cognitive Decline Index?
Then there's the Trump angle. Tiffany Cross went on `cnn news` to call out the New York Times for finally noticing Trump's… let's call it "evolving" cognitive state. Trump, predictably, responded by attacking the reporter as "ugly." The Times article cited a shrinking schedule and "rambling" speeches.
Here's where my data-analyst brain starts to itch. Can we quantify "rambling"? Can we track the frequency of logical fallacies or nonsensical statements in Trump's speeches over time? (I'm picturing a "Cognitive Decline Index," updated daily.) And more importantly, is this decline materially different from what we'd expect from a 79-year-old?
Cross rightly points out that the media has been slow to acknowledge what many have suspected for years. But slow acknowledgement is better than no acknowledgement at all. Tiffany Cross Rips Media On CNN After 'Ugly' Trump Attack
The Weiss Factor: A Consolidation of "Normal"?
Finally, the Bari Weiss situation. Reportedly, she's eyeing a move to CNN if Paramount Skydance succeeds in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. Her vision? Saturday night debates in front of a live audience and shutting out voices like Hasan Piker and Tucker Carlson in favor of "normal" voices like Alan Dershowitz.
This is the part that genuinely concerns me. Weiss seems to be arguing that the solution to media polarization is to… further consolidate power and limit the range of acceptable discourse. She wants to elevate "normal" voices. But who defines "normal"? And what happens to the voices that fall outside that narrow band?
The idea of one person, or one company, controlling that much of the media landscape is, frankly, terrifying. It's a recipe for echo chambers and groupthink.