One of the Fortune 500 companies I worked for had a giant screen TV in the cafeteria. Since us conservatives came in at 5:00 we’d change it to FOX. Then the blacks from the production floor (many of whom had been hired off the welfare roles as a condition for getting the building for $1/year) would change it to CNN. They were very vocal and in your face about their CNN preference.
Your story illustrates why having CNN on instead of FOX is understandable in a lot of public places.
The average CNN viewer is far less stable, mentally, than is the average FOX viewer.
Think of it as putting on cartoons to keep the neighbors little ones from having a temper tantrum in public.