CNN plays it straight, hemorrhages viewers

Well, with Fox on the right and MSNBC on the left, where else is there to go?

I guess for each his/her own.

 

The Jon Stewart appearance was the beginning of the end of Crossfire, which had great, humble roots back in the day when it was Tom.... last name escaping me, an old liberal, and Pat Buchanan. You knew these two guys weren't going to agree on what day it was, but it was respectful, most of the time.

I don;t know why CNN felt like it had to unilaterally disarm. But I don't know how they really dive back into the political show business, either.

 

And even then, they can't do it without their "talent" (and I lose the term loosely) pulling a Tim McCarver and trying to show how brilliant they are. I think I gave up on CNN during non-crises a year or so ago when the story rotation became Susan Boyle, war, American Idol, missing teen of the week.

 

I have CNN International on my cable, and the difference is stunning. News by adults for adults. CNN believes, probably correctly, that Americans are not adults and won't sit still for information when they can infotainment, but since they're failing with crap, why not fail doing work they can be proud of?

 

And then Headline News became "All Missing Teens, All The Time." Talk about a waste of a perfectly good channel.

 

I don't think MSNBC is as left as Fox is right. And maybe it's my age and cynicism but while I find the issues the left champions more appealing than those of the right, I find those the left as unappealing and unsympathetic as the right.

I wish CNN luck in their attempt to be an honest and objective broker.The problem with being an honest and objective broker, aside from the lack of enetertainment value, is while there are at least 2 sides to every issue, they are not equal and some sides do not deserve to be protrayed as having a legitmate greivance. Holocaust deniers, the Westboro Baptist Church and opponents of global warming

 

It's long past time that the world finally caught up to the gross worthlessness that is Larry King.

Cooper? With his zero Gravitas Rating? The harder they push him, the
more the public yawns "You're kidding, right?"

Do better.

 

For years I had CNN on every day, just white noise in the background while I worked. Just put it on and left it on, and at the end of the day, I felt like I had a pretty idea what was going on in the world.

At some point over the last year, someone over there clearly decided that anyone at home watching CNN during the day must be unemployed, and therefore on the verge of foreclosure or complete economic ruin. Suddenly it seemed 90% of the programming was about resumes and job searching and paying for college. All important and valid topics, for sure.....but not for 15 hours a day.

At the same time, the on-air personalities became so horrifically annoying I decided to turn off the sound, so I could still glance up to see if something good was happening, ie, boy flies away in balloon, complete Janet Jackson coverage, etc.

As for the political coverage, other than Gergen, their collection of experts seem incredibly dull and dated.

On the other hand, as I type this, msnbc is interviewing Sinead O'Connor about her assessment of the pope, so I have no idea we'll go from here.

 

If I'm CNN, honestly I would do two things:

1. Hire Sarah Palin to a 3-year, $5 million a year contract to host a 4-night-a-week, hour-long chat show, and repeat the hell out of it.
2. Sit back an enjoy my new huge viewership, while at the same time watch Fox News start to sweat a little.

 

I could have written this. The afternoon stuff got so depressing that I was having trouble sleeping because I couldn't stop thinking about it. Plus, I could no longer stand listening to Tony Harris or Rick Sanchez. Now, I hardly ever watch the news. I'm less informed, but I'm not depressed all the time.

 

Bri

Brilliant

 

The Sinead stuff on MSNBC is a rerun. And was probably run via webcam for a reason.

Years weren't kind, buddy.