CNN plays it straight, hemorrhages viewers

[Lugnuts]

Several months ago, CNN made the decision to pull all partisan-hosted stuff off the air and give an earnest go at playing it straight down the middle politically and journalistically.

The news is not good:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/media/30cnn.html?ref=business

People want their news with an accent these days. They find it comforting and reassuring to have their beliefs reinforced.

Fox is riding high in the ratings right now. Not "Dancing With The Stars" high... and their demos still leave something to be desired... Over 200 companies and counting won't advertise on Beck... but Fox is making a living, make no mistake.

I guess conservatives feel they are in very uncertain times and need a haven ??

 

[Ace]

I think people love to hear hosts who agree with them and attack people, institutions, fears real and imagined that they don't like.

Even if it's the same stuff over and over and the things that are the bedrock of your faith -- such as Freedom -- are things you would quickly take from someone scarily different from you.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Political slant has nothing or very little to do with. Watching CNN is like watching chaos.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Ideological slant is the only way cable news can attract an audience on a daily basis (big news obviously works, too, but you can't count on that). This is because minus the slant, all cable news is the same, and all of it blows. It's like sniffing cleaning fluid in terms of brain cells lost per second.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Unrelated to anything, I detest its new website layout. I like the old one much better.
I hit the new one less and go to the Foxnews site more.

 

[Alma]

I guess conservatives feel they are in very uncertain times and need a haven ??

Well, yeah.

I am not a fan of Fox News. But it operates on the conceit that no one else is really like them, and this is true. It jumped behind the "Tea Bag" movement, which is obviously popular with a portion of America, and it hired Sarah Palin, who is also popular with a portion of America, and Obama's little freeze-out, I'm sure, legitimized Fox to that portion even more.

Plus - and this cannot be overlooked - Fox News owns the AM dial now. Conservative radio companies gobble up radio stations, they all play conservative talk (as if only Republicans want to listen to AM!) and that drives folks to the TV shows. Hannity/O'Reilly spend about 10-25% of their radio program pimping the TV show. It only follows that viewers will set their dials. Heck, it's why we know who Miley Cyrus is - because Disney owns 70 stations or whatever and plays her music five times an hour.

 

[amraeder]

Several months ago, CNN made the decision to pull all partisan-hosted stuff off the air and give an earnest go at playing it straight down the middle politically and journalistically.

The news is not good:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/media/30cnn.html?ref=business

People want their news with an accent these days. They find it comforting and reassuring to have their beliefs reinforced.

Fox is riding high in the ratings right now. Not "Dancing With The Stars" high... and their demos still leave something to be desired... Over 200 companies and counting won't advertise on Beck... but Fox is making a living, make no mistake.

I guess conservatives feel they are in very uncertain times and need a haven ??

CNN has been hemorrhaging viewers for longer than the past several months, haven't they? Seems like it's been a trend for a long time, now.

 

[Lugnuts]

They've always been bleeding intermittently, but since they've made this decision, they're hemorrhaging.

 

[amraeder]

Ahh, OK. Seems like I've been hearing the Woe-is-CNN stories for a while now. Maybe it's just more dire now than it was before. Or maybe they've all be recent and my memory just sucks.

 

[2underpar]

every time i watch CNN, it seems like it's 30 seconds of news and 3 minutes of commercials. very annoying.

 

[slappy4428]

every time i watch CNN, it seems like it's 30 seconds of news and 3 minutes of commercials. very annoying.

Maybe it's because you sleep through the news and that's all you remember...

 

[dooley_womack1]

I blame soccer

 

[Shaggy]

The saddest part is that HLN outdraws CNN. That channel is trash.

I still prefer CNN to all other news networks, but then again I'm not an idiot in fear of everything on the other side of the tracks.

 

[MacDaddy]

The saddest part is that HLN outdraws CNN. That channel is trash.

I still prefer CNN to all other news networks, but then again I'm not an idiot in fear of everything on the other side of the tracks.

I recently saw Headline News for the first time in years and couldn't believe how they'd ruined it.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

So I guess the moral of the story is that a network should take a side and be clear about which side it's taking?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

So I guess the moral of the story is that a network should take a side and be clear about which side it's taking?

I'm not sure CNN's problem is that. CNN isn't particularly good at any one thing now, and some of their on-air talent is repellent.

Fox is better at breaking news, which used to be CNN's bread and butter. And I dare anyone to watch Rick Sanchez for more than 5 minutes without throwing something at their TV. Kyra Phillips is just as bad -- listen to her do a 3 minute interview and I swear you will hear Kyra's voice for 2:45 of it.

 

[heyabbott]

Several months ago, CNN made the decision to pull all partisan-hosted stuff off the air and give an earnest go at playing it straight down the middle politically and journalistically.

The news is not good:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/media/30cnn.html?ref=business

People want their news with an accent these days. They find it comforting and reassuring to have their beliefs reinforced.

Fox is riding high in the ratings right now. Not "Dancing With The Stars" high... and their demos still leave something to be desired... Over 200 companies and counting won't advertise on Beck... but Fox is making a living, make no mistake.

I guess conservatives feel they are in very uncertain times and need a haven ??

Wolf Blitzer's breathless fits of anguish over the obvious has driven me back to the print media. Can someone please pull the plug on Larry King, is it still 1984?

 

[dooley_womack1]

The saddest part is that HLN outdraws CNN. That channel is trash.

I still prefer CNN to all other news networks, but then again I'm not an idiot in fear of everything on the other side of the tracks.

I recently saw Headline News for the first time in years and couldn't believe how they'd ruined it.

I miss the old female announcing voice from about 10-12 years ago.

 

[jackfinarelli]

Too much of CNN is not news. I don't care if they slant left or right or up or down. I would like to have a channel where I can see the news when I want to see the news. That used to be CNN; that is no longer CNN.

Larry King's program is "news" about once a month - - and I'm being generous.

Anderson Cooper and John King do some news but not much and not broadly enough.

"Backstory" contains "added details" about some news story most of which are superfluous.

ShowBiz just stinks.

Lots of the rest of the stuff is features driven.


Once upon a time, CNN was about news. Not anymore.

 

[reformedhack]

Heck, I still miss Lynne Russell, and she's been gone nine years.

http://i39.tinypic.com/xclsfk.jpg