Contact Us

All Things CNN is an independent blog that has no affiliation with CNN.

If you wish to contact us with tips, comments or suggestions our email is allthingscnn@gmail.com.

To contact a specific CNN program please check our CNN programs link at the top of this page.


To contact CNN
click here.

Contributors

All Things CNN
is now on Twitter.
twitter / AllThingsCNN

Friday, August 6, 2010

Your Views on the News, August 6, 2010

Lots to read, digest and discuss in this article from the September issue of Vanity Fair.

The Gray Lady of Cable News
Many think Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S., has lost the cable-news war to Fox. But CNN has racked up record profits by being bland.
Article for Vanity Fair by Michael Wolff•Illustration by John Cuneo

Jon Klein is an extremely affable broadcast-news executive, a chinos-and-Docksiders 52-year-old whom almost everybody in the TV-news business likes and believes is not only responsible for CNN’s ignominious ratings decline—it has lost in every prime-time slot for most of the last five years—but also for the collapse of broadcast journalism itself.

Among the inside-baseball television-news diaspora—network-news alums who have lost their jobs and been scattered as the television-news industry has been flattened—Klein and his stewardship of the network rise to a level not just of confounding mismanagement but of moral void in which the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity. In this example of the existential crisis of modern life, not only is CNN being beaten year after year by Fox, but it’s precisely its well-intentioned earnestness that is responsible for the rise of ideological television.

“CNN’s inability to evolve has given the game to Fox and us,” says MSNBC president Phil Griffin.



And now, because of the network’s failure—the dismal ratings of Campbell Brown at eight, the pushing out of Larry King after 25 years, and the rumored departures of Anderson Cooper and John King—Klein is getting a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remake prime time. I’m sure I can’t accurately, or fulsomely enough, describe the guffawing and head smacking and sheer incredulity that his first decision in this effort—to hire disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer as one of the two eight P.M. anchors—has provoked among the diaspora. In fact, the question of why Eliot Spitzer was hired is just cream on top of the far more hotly debated one: Why hasn’t Jon Klein been fired?

But Klein, who has the title president of CNN/U.S., may not be the person most responsible for the collapse of CNN. And, in fact, CNN may not have collapsed at all—last year was its most profitable (half a billion dollars’ worth of profit); the current quarter will be more profitable still.

CNN, unlike virtually every other news organization, has not laid off anybody—it keeps hiring—and is expanding its field resources and network of bureaus around the world. It’s the last of the old-fashioned television-news operations—likely the world’s biggest. Not for nothing is it the place most people go when big news happens, when the world shudders. “The founding idea of CNN is Event. ‘Getting a signal out of there [wherever the event is] is our triumph,’” interprets Richard Wald, a longtime network-news executive now at the Columbia Journalism School, “no matter that Event is no longer the primary interest of viewers.”

While event-driven reporting, shortly after the event occurs, invariably becomes repetitive and dull, not least of all because everybody else is reporting it, at CNN they are not ready to admit that dull is wrong. If CNN be dull, then news is dull—so be it.

Jon Klein is a generational figure in the news business—a business precisely described and stratified by when you came into it. He went into network news in 1982, long before cable news was anybody’s interest or worry. He rose at CBS to run 60 Minutes and 48 Hours. In 1999 he bolted to launch the FeedRoom, an Internet-news start-up—a kind of YouTube before its time. After the collapse of the dot-com world, he became, in 2004, an ideal candidate for CNN—an old television hand with new-media experience.

Pay no attention that he was hired to run the nation’s leading cable news network but had no cable experience: by 2004 all other cable news had become, in the mind of CNN, non-news and even anti-news. CNN, which Ted Turner had quixotically launched in 1980 as something altogether different from network news—inexpensive, round-the-clock, edgy, focused on events and not personalities—had become worthy and distinguished news. It had come full circle to see itself just as network news once saw itself: voice-of-God news.

And what CNN had done to network news—made it look old, irrelevant, pompous—Fox News, within a few years of its launch, in 1996, was doing to CNN. Fox was re-inventing the language, tone, look, and pace of news—and doing this as conservative news. So, at least in the mind of CNN, to be interesting was to be conservative. Dull meant fair-minded, objective, balanced.

CNN, to the people who work there, and to the executives at its parent, Time Warner, represents the tradition of news based on investment in fact-finding, concern for the commonweal, and intelligent reporting and storytelling skills. Every point of ratings it gives up has come to represent a setback for that tradition. The current nadir of its prime-time schedule has pretty much meant the cultural victory of outrĂ© news. At CNN, they tend to see the odds as painfully overwhelming—there is just no way to compete with this new desire for opinion and for political identification. There’s almost a point of pride in not competing: last year, CNN ousted Lou Dobbs, the longtime anchor who had become too opinionated—even though he had the network’s highest-rated prime-time show. In 2003, the network got rid of Connie Chung, in spite of her high ratings, because she was too tabloid.

There is, at CNN, a lot of attention paid to its DNA—Dobbs and Chung were bad for or at odds with the DNA (one CNNer described them to me as bad for “the CNN feng shui”). But part of CNN’s troubles—if they are troubles—may actually be a confusion about its identity. Ted Turner’s CNN was a high-profile, commercial idea—not a traditional capital-J journalism idea. In a complicated piece of corporate triangulation, Time Warner agreed to buy the company in 1995. (Turner was locked up by his investors, including Time Warner, and had little choice but to sell Turner Broadcasting.) This not only imposed Time Warner’s layers of postal-system-like bureaucracy on CNN, but also combined the old Time Inc. news ethos—fusty, Ivy League, New York, Establishment—with CNN’s. CNN, under Time Warner—with Ted Turner steadily losing his fight for control and influence—arguably became more Time than CNN, suddenly part of a long tradition and imperative for respectability, often feeling as Old Guard and as fuddy-duddy as a newsmagazine. In 2001, Walter Isaacson, the editor of Time magazine—among the most traditional and archetypal figures in the organization—was made CNN’s chief, even though he had no background in television.

On the other hand, the fustiness that has contributed to its losing the prime-time war, and thereby, in the minds of the diaspora, ceding broadcast journalism to Fox, is exactly what it has come to sell so profitably.

Cable has two revenue sources: the fees cable systems pay to carry programming, and the fees advertisers pay to be on the programs. Cable fees average from 5 to 20 cents per subscriber per month, with CNN getting substantially more. CNN’s cable fees remain high in part because it is the respectable news network. A cable operator would be making a politically controversial statement if it carried just Fox and MSNBC. CNN now makes its money by charging cable operators a premium fee to avoid such controversy. Similarly, advertisers want to be on CNN because it is not Fox. To advertise on CNN associates you with respectability—while advertisers on Fox are associated with Bill O’Reilly. Even if you want the Fox audience, also making a CNN buy gives you cover. Dull, bland, worthy, consistent, has a market.

Except that the bottom may be falling out of the market. How long can the respectability strategy prevail without an audience?

In fact, at CNN there is a lot of argument about audience, most of which concludes, somewhat by magic, that its audience is actually larger than Fox’s. And it is—sort of, sometimes. When the news is big, it is. And often, in sheer numbers, it is, too—except that CNN’s audience leaves it almost as quickly as it turns to it, and Fox’s audience stays.

So the problem, as CNN and Time Warner see it, especially with prime time, is not so much audience as buzz.

“A lot of the feeling inside the company is that the problem is not CNN—the problem is CNN’s P.R.,” says someone familiar with the thinking of Time Warner’s C.E.O., Jeff Bewkes.

In Time Warner Kremlinology (both viciously internecine and carefully hands-off), notice is paid to Bewkes’s hiring of Gary Ginsberg—a liberal who’d previously been Murdoch’s head P.R. guy (with knowledge of the Fox strategy)—to run Time Warner’s P.R. strategy. The always tremulous tea leaves at Time Warner have Ginsberg being given a special CNN portfolio—a buzz-oversight mission.

Hence, suddenly, there is a hurry-up about prime time, which is any network’s main buzz motor. Campbell Brown’s own statement about her inability to attract a meaningful audience was a buzz kill. Then Anderson Cooper began suggesting he might leave, too—not taking the blame, as Brown had done for her ratings, but putting the blame on CNN for not delivering a powerful enough lead-in schedule. Then, in a long-rumored move, the network decided to throw in the towel on Larry King, who, despite his age and slipping ratings, has continued to be the mainstay of its prime time.

Jon Klein was ordered to make it all new.

Now CNN stands in vivid contrast to Fox not only in style of journalism, but also in style of management. Fox is the vision of one man: Roger Ailes. Even Rupert Murdoch—at least according to Ailes—can’t meddle with what Ailes does. CNN, on the other hand, sits in the middle of one of the world’s most labyrinthine enterprises, ever buffeted by changing bureaucratic fortunes. (CNN was taken over by Time Warner, then Time Warner was taken over by AOL, then Time Warner retook the company.)

After Bewkes in the complex line of command at CNN comes Phil Kent, in CNN’s original home of Atlanta. Kent runs all of Turner Broadcasting, which, in one of the anomalies of Time Warner bureaucracy, is still an autonomous unit of cable programming inside what is primarily a cable-programming company—so, in addition to news, he gets TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, truTV and Peachtree TV, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Adult Swim. After Kent comes Jim Walton, who got the top CNN job after Isaacson quit, in 2004. A Turner lifer who came up through the sports division, Walton, also Atlanta-based, is responsible for all of CNN, which includes not just the network but the Headline News Network (HLN), the broadcasts you get in your hotel room overseas, and the Web site (CNN.com, with its 75 million unique visitors every month, is, in fact, the undisputed leader in Internet news, the fastest-growing part of the news business). There is a sense that buzzless Atlanta is something of a redoubt from the network itself. Atlanta is focused on the larger picture. Which, curiously, is another element that helps protect Jon Klein’s job. Up in New York, he takes the brunt of the blame for CNN’s not being cool—or, it sometimes appears, even competent—while the guys in Atlanta get the credit for making all the dough.
Jon Klein, in other words, answers to a lot of people, a corporate rather than television art: Klein is reported by various diaspora sources to excuse CNN’s prime-time performance by saying that his bosses wouldn’t let him hire MSNBC’s star Keith Olbermann when he wanted to, while, alternatively, in a diss to MSNBC and that ilk of programming, saying he refused to hire Olbermann when he could have. (Sometimes, in this story, it’s said to be MSNBC anchor and cable star Rachel Maddow, who briefly appeared on CNN, whom Klein pridefully declined to hire.) Klein, in other words, treads the fine CNN line of seeming to understand the low road of success, while, with great and sometimes painful fortitude, taking the high road.

Klein’s original idea for replacing Brown in the eight P.M. hour was to do a show with a panel of “investigators”—detectives, prosecutors, tough-guy journalists who would do … investigative journalism. Dramatic, but high-end. One of Klein’s ideas for the panel was Eliot Spitzer, who, albeit disgraced, had made his career as a muckraking attorney general. Spitzer, however, when contacted about this idea by CNN, said he couldn’t possibly investigate anyone without subpoena power. This might have suggested a level of arrogance greater than even that of the cable opinion jockeys. But after Jeff Bewkes had approved hiring the tainted former governor, after the temperature of the Time Warner board had been taken about such a dubious hire, and after the whole idea of the investigative series had been thrown out, Eliot Spitzer, a man who, on top of being one of the most disliked people in America, has no television experience, was given a show.

In a similar, hurry up and make a huge decision based on a pure crap-shoot move—and a desperate desire not to look like they are doing anything that the other successful cable news networks are doing—CNN, as this article closed, was on the verge of offering the British newspaper editor and reality-show bon vivant, Piers Morgan, Larry King’s job.

Spitzer will probably flop and Jon Klein will probably be fired. But not for a while. The powers that be at Time Warner and CNN are, despite their bad press and the implication that they are ruining rather than representing high standards of journalism, actually happy about how things are going. If news is a commodity, if CNN’s fundamental problem is that it spends most of its air time reporting what everybody already knows (and not spicing it up with point of view or going narrow and deep into a subject), then, well, why not just be the biggest producer of it in the world—that’s a business. CNN, which has just ended its contract with the A.P. newswire, now does what the A.P. does—if you’re a broadcaster, you can buy CNN’s news feed (you don’t have to get the news yourself). CNN continues to try to do a deal with one of the networks. In the past, there was almost a deal with NBC and with ABC—now they’re talking to CBS. The network could have its stars and they would mouth CNN’s news. Inevitably, this will happen, CNN believes. In the end, there will be only one provider of boring news—that’s CNN’s hope.

Indeed, the other reason Jon Klein still has his job is that his bosses might not really want him to fix CNN even if he could. (Another variation on this, by a Klein supporter: “If Jon Klein can’t fix CNN, it can’t be fixed.”) Fixing CNN means taking sides in the great news wars—making a stand which you have to have the balls for, and which could get you killed (or fired). CNN is a coward’s play—but not necessarily a losing one. It just isn’t interesting or new or worth getting up for. So another reason Jon Klein is safe for the moment: would anyone really want his job?

Michael Wolff is a Vanity Fair contributing editor.





All content, unless otherwise cited, is © All Things CNN and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two interesting points here: Respectability is not worth the price to advertisers if there's no audience, and Anderson Cooper blames those before him, in the primeline up for his poor ratings.
Question: Bill O'Reilly has the highest ratings in Cable News. He's first in the primeline up. How come he's first, if the rest on Fox are lower than he? I say put Cooper at 8PM and let's see who he blames then.
And the next point, just stands to reason. Respectability will NOT always equal profit. It's beginning to erode as we speak.

Anonymous said...

Lead ins do matter it helps Hannity and Greta
big time.CNN needs to get it's act together and
really try and fix the problems they have, which
is bad shows. Everybody knows Jon Klein has
ruined CNN. The question is what is taking the
CNN brass too long to realize this.CNN also
needs to do something about TSR and do we
really need to see any dayside anchor for 2 hrs.
I am wondering if the Elliot Spitzer fiasco is a
way to get Jon Klein out.

Anonymous said...

Try doing some in depth reports that really
do tell people something they don't know
and stop it with the overexposure of the
pundits.CNN's forte has always been news
and they are moving away from their strength.
It is simple do some news and less chatter.
There are no real news channels. CNN tries
and act like it does news but they have tons
of ideology all day long that is just way too
boring and bad tv. For goodness sake CNN
it is 2010 who cares about the talking heads.

Anonymous said...

Okay this is news. We all know that Jon Klein
has mismanaged CNN. The question is who
will CNN hire to replace him. The writing is
on the wall.CNN needs to come up with ways
to make the news more interesting and stop
trying to sale personalities. I hate to say it but
I think the Spitzer hire was the last straw for
many CNN viewers and they are just turning
away already. Let's face it, CNN does not have
a plan or a vision. The word is CNN is not
spending much on the Spitzer show and they
know it is not going to work.

Anonymous said...

Try and go anchor free for the 8pm hour.
Real journalism is fearless and knows no
borders and is not bound by ideology or
lies. All of the cable news channels just
make up the news. It is not real it is fake
and people are not that stupid.

Anonymous said...

CNN should hire Conor Knighton &
Team Infomania. It is as close to the
'Daily Show' as you can get and takes
on all of the media like no one else.
Look at the Vanguard reporters for
Current as well.Marianna Van Zeller
would be a great replacement for
Christianne Amanpour. Vanguard is
starting to get recognition and is
up for awards and has one some.

Anonymous said...

I will know CNN is serious when they start
hiring journalists and do something about
annoying anchors.I think they should really
think about getting a show with Kyra Phillips
and some of her female anchors. Let's hope
the rumors are not true and that CNN will
not being going with 3 white males in prime
time.

Anonymous said...

The last sentence in this article tells it all. "CNN's inability to evolve gives the game to us/MSNBC."
Yes, viewers turn to CNN for Breaking News, and probably always will, but the viewership for breaking events, is getting smaller and smaller.
As far as the lead ins go, who was there before Campbell Brown,... Paula Zahn and who was there before her?
8pm was always a problem for CNN because no one can compete with O'Reilly.
But the game has changed because MSNBC, brought in new talent like Olbermann and Maddow and now CNN is third. It has less to do with lead ins and more to do with the rough competition now being given from MSNBC. Klein underestimated his competition and now he wants to play "catch up," and he can't.
PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE.

Anonymous said...

@ anonymous 8:13 THANK YOU!!!!
It's obvious that people are posting comments and opinions without reading the article.

Anonymous said...

MSNBC grew once they found the right fit at
9 with TRMS.CNN did fail to bring in new faces
and a new on air look.I can't take the graphics
& excessive tv monitor shooting on CNN.It's
true that CNN has always had trouble at 8.
It is as if CNN & MSNBC have switched places.
Jon Klein made it easy for MSNBC to pass CNN.
ICN points out some errors in the article. Lou
Dobbs ratings were way down when he left.
Yes, CNN must evolve but evolve into what.
Fox gives their viewers what they want and
the is a market for what they do. People
are watching more of MSNBC because they
came up with better shows and CNN needs
to do something new and fresh and give
viewers something they won't get from
MSNBC or Fox.Do you know how many people
think that CNN is turning into Fox. Guess what
they don't like it. Does anyone really believe
that if CNN puts opinionated hosts that
people will suddenly watch the network
more. Keep dreaming. CNN has been there
and done that with Lou Dobbs and we all
know that ended in disaster.CNN has to
do something that will not make me turn
away and right now they are not succeeding.

Anonymous said...

Jon Klein has yet to have a successful program.
360 was already on when he got there. TSR is
medicore but lately it is just not working and
needs to really find ways to liven things up.The
problem for CNN is that Jon Klein is really bad
at coming up with shows. C'mon Rick's List.
How is Rick Sanchez a fresh face. There was
nothing wrong with CNN dayside and Klein goes
to the solo anchor format to give Rick Sanchez
a show.AM is in bad shape and somebody needs
to fix John King USA. Let's remember it took
10 years for MSNBC to get to where it is. I
think Wolff is stating the obvious. Everyone
knows Klein can't continue at CNN. The
problem is the suits waited to long to try
and fix things and now I think they are just
trying to buy time until the can find someone
to replace Klein. That is not going to be easy
since Klein has really messed things up.

Anonymous said...

A 'Daily Show' program would help CNN for
the hour or even something like 'Nightline'.
It is ironic that a news program is giving
Letterman and Leno a run for their money.
'Infomania' is a blast .

Anonymous said...

CNN it is simple: Target Women for the 8 pm
hour. Women are 52 % of the population and
can no longer be ignored by big media. Rotate
diverse groups of women who work for CNN,
HLN, CNNI, CNN.com and all of the properties
of Time Warner. Each night you open with a
different song. For example, premiere night
I'm Every Woman. Another night it can be
Hollaback. There are thousands of songs about
women, relationships etc. It would never get old
because it would never be the same. Let me
stress news and interesting topics.I doubt
if O'Reilly or Countdown have a large number
of female viewers.Go with 3 or 4 women and
cover national news, global news. pop culture
and the arits and music and women mags
and even have music in the studio on Friday
night. Also, introduce of to female reporters
out covering the news all around the world
and can talk about Afghanistan, Iraq or
even sports. Every once in a while have the
men on just for fun.

Anonymous said...

CNN must involve into a real time news channel
and add new material every 15 minutes and
let their reporters and photojournalists get out
and find some news. Get away from soundbite
driven news and mindless chatter. Show some
journalistic guts and quite getting you news
ideas from talk radio and political blogs.Use
infographics for conveying information. I can
go on the web and find hundreds of stories
that CNN could use. Drop the crawl and show
story headlines going in and out of the breaks.
if you have video or photo to enhance the
story, go ahead and use it and just have the
simple banner like HLN with all of the info.
For interviews please start inviting guests
who offer insight and act like they have
some sense and not interested in throwing
verbal insults. The problem for CNN is that
people don't trust the news to really tell
them what is going on because cable news
has turned everything into a circus. The
person who will succeed Jon Klein must
understand how to bring together old style
and new style reporting, use the web as
a great asset to track down stories. Youtube
and Facebook are great assets. You have
to make sure that what you see on Twitter
is legit. Use Google most popular, CNN.com,
Yahoo,AOL, etc. Cover all subjects from
national to international, from books to
photo essays,from interviews to print
journalism, from science to technology
from music to art. As many topics as possible
and always keep in mind that television is
a visual media. If you got video flaunt it.
One of the biggest stories on the web all
weekend long was about the Bermuda
Triangle. Scientists think they have solved
the mystery.I am still waiting to see this
story on CNN. Get onboard with live
streaming it is getting bigger and bigger.
CNN is stuck in the 90's and is trying to
shut out the modern world and it will not
work. For goodness sake people it is 2010.
CNN must pivot from politically centered
news and do the news and give people a
break from the craziness that is way to
common for cable news. You have 24 hr
cable news channels that just let a few
people control the news of the day.
Quit being a partner with the people who
spread misinformation.CNN must find a
distinct model that sets them out in the
cable news village and makes them stand
out. Earlier this year there was a story about
a Penn St student who started his own news
blog to take on the university newspaper.
Guess who has the most popular blog.
The student who gave them news in real
times and they loved it as a great source
for news.CNN must also understand that
there is a growing thirst for community
news about what is going on in you city
or town. In many cities like Los Angeles
there are these newspapers that tell about
what is going on. Have your people step
out into the cities where you have them
based to find some original reports.

Anonymous said...

ICN has an interesting item it seems as though
the average age of CNN is 63 while FNC is 64.
However, FNC has significantly higher numbers
of viewers who are 65+ and 45+. CNN has to
find a way to bring in more viewers by becoming
more like CNN.com to television. I am thinking
maybe the people running CNN.com need to
replace Jon Klein. CNN can get as many as 30
million viewers.I just want to find out what is
going on. The web does a better job and is
not annoying.

Anonymous said...

I read that Nielsen will start including online
viewing into the ratings real soon and my
question is what took so long.Newsflash :
the PC will obsolete in 2 years. Thanks to
mobile devices and the Ipad. CNN's strength
is multiple platforms for people to just focus
on the single medium of tv is not smart. There
are countless mediums for CNN to make millions.

Anonymous said...

I really don't get why 360 is not live on Friday.
Is this just for the summer or is this permanent.
That is a huge mistake. Everybody knows the
Nielsen changes are coming because they are
admitting the process for determining ratings
is outdated. That is exactly why 360 keeps
saying record the show on your dvr and Rachel
is touting Flo TV. We might actually get to a
point when the ratings don't matter because
it is pretty hard to track what shows 300
million people are watching. Demographics
are a problem for FNC as well as the web.
It not just about the number of viewers but
people look at the demographics for a full
picture.CNN did underestimate MSNBC and
now MSNBC is beefing up it's news to take
CNN out. MSNBC grew in prime time when
they went to solo interviews. Take a hint
CNN. They know CNN giving Elliot Spitzer
the lead show in prime time is only going
to benefit them big time because CNN just
told us they are not interested in news.

Anonymous said...

@5:13PM: Newsflash: The PC will not become obsolete so long as baby boomers keep watching Cable News. We don't like looking at teeny tiny, itsy bitsy things and many of us, past the age of 40, like AC, need reading glasses. So no, newsflash...it's not happening for a very long time, or until us 40+ folk are buried and gone.
And for the record: Did you notice how screens on PC desk tops and labtops are getting larger not smaller as well as HD LCD TV's? People like LIVING LARGE.

Anonymous said...

Until CNN stops being afraid of the right
they will continue to suffer in the ratings.
Tonight on 360 Anderson Cooper repeated
the falsehood that there is controversy about
Michelle Obama going to Spain. Wrong !!
This is only on talk radio and conservative
blogs. Would you believe this was the lead
story on 360 done as keeping them honest.
C'mon 360 can't be that desperate for ratings.
Maybe it would have worked with hisstorians
or social secretaries for former 1st ladies
but leave it to CNN to have the pundits on
for the lead story.360 really should think
about using the phrase keeping them
honest while using pundits. That is blantant
contradiction.

Anonymous said...

@6:04PM: Have to agree with everything you said. A Live 360 on Fridays is a must, with or without Cooper, but showing reruns is a disaster CNN can't afford. How stupid! Just check out the ratings on TVN for this past Friday.
And yes, they abolutely underestimated MSNBC's reach and journalistic appeal.

Anonymous said...

@11:23PM: I agree with you. They lead with the story from the Drudge Report according to Roland Martin. They are afraid of the right and they will fail if this is the route they are taking.

Anonymous said...

I will no longer watch Anderson Cooper or
CNN. Tonight on 360 Cooper attack Michelle
Obama with comments from Obama critics
and trying to use them as legitimate writers.
I now watch Rachel Maddow. CNN is done.
There is going to be a huge backlash. Anderson
Cooper was once a journalist. I don't know
what he is now but I know I don't like and will
even watch the repeat of Countdown from now
on.

Anonymous said...

The truth does not matter for 360. Anderson
reported the rumors but no facts. the NYT
& Chicago Sun Times reported the facts.

Since when did the Secret Service become an
entourage. She used her own money and did
not waste taxpayer money. If Anderson actually
respected the Obamas as much as he does the
tea party and Sarah Palin people would not have
a problem. For him to spread the lies is just
down right irresponsible and it should cost
him dearly.360 got the story wrong and that
is that is the problem with CNN these days
the truth does not matter.

Apparently Rush Limbaugh determines the
content of 360 and you wonder why MSNBC
is kicking CNN's behind.

Anonymous said...

The 360 lead last night was a blunder. I turned
away for 15 minutes and came back later. I was
wondering how come the Tillman story was not
the lead given the news that the Taliban is back
in Afghanistan and 6 Americans having been
killed there over the weekend. I have a feeling
that Anderson has already lost his viewers to
Rachel. You have to give her credit when it cones
to cable news. Rachel uses the facts to make a
point and it shows she has done her homework.
If Rachel gets a fact wrong she apologizes and
that means she stands out in cable news.
Rachel aims for high standards and viewers
appreciate that.I also thought he gave Palin
a free pass it was clear she looked down
her nose at the teacher as though she was
a nobody.

Anonymous said...

The sales of PC's have been heading down for
some time now and people feel the need to
not have to carry around their phone, Ipod
or laptop, Video looks pretty darn good on
the Ipad . So all I need is the Ipad and a
blackberry or Iphone. Just yesterday it was
announced you can now download an app
to watch tv on your Iphone or blackberry..
Whether you like it or not tv everywhere is
coming and lets not forget Hulu.

Anonymous said...

Apparently 360 does not get it. I think they took
a look at Google and thought the fact they saw
Google trends had Michelle Obama that it was
a big story. Please understand CNN trends is
what blogs and the web are talking about the
searches is what the people care about the is
a big difference. This happens way too often
with 360 and is exactly why the ratings are
down.Am I really supposed to be upset that
Michelle Obama went to Spain. Listen to Perino
Anderson the First Lady is off limits. We the
media get a life.

Anonymous said...

@12:28PM: Yes, but if all that "stuff" goes to your TV....IT IS LARGE. Monitors are getting bigger and not smaller and 50% of the population does not want or have a blackberry, an iphone, an ipad and etc....and I own stock in Apple and Google so I ought to know. But keep on keeping on. The more you spend on all that "stuff" or is it apps, the more money I make. Oh by the way, I just bought RIM as well.

Anonymous said...

According to TVN, AC360, got a 530 in its totals for Monday. Better than Friday, but not much.
AC may be getting bolder, but it is obvious, this is a turn off to some people. You can be bold without being nasty. AC must start to watch Rachel Maddow, for homework. Somehow, she's able to get her opinion across without showing her opponent that she is annoyed with them. After all, they may not be the host, but they are still a guest, and a guest, whether you agree with them or not, still deserves courtesy.

Anonymous said...

Former CNNer Thomas Roberts is awesome.
He stood head and shoulders above Ali Velshi
when there was breaking news.I even continued
watching Chris Jansing. MSNBC is serious and
CNN is just going from bad to worse. People
expect Anderson to do news right off the bat.
Rachel always leads with news and not the
talking heads.It is almost like watching John
King USA and 360 doesn't need to go in that
direction at all.

Anonymous said...

I think we are about to find out just how low
CNN will go, According to Mediaite CNN was
5th in the demo last night. Considering Rick
Sanchez has not understanding between
corruption and ethics violations and you
know why people are not watching. He had
the nerve to say the White House was watching
his show tonight. Rick nobody is watching.

Anonymous said...

Rick's List is doing worst than Campbell Brown
and CNN is running repeats of Larry King. At
this point I don't think Elliot Spitzer or Piers
Morgan will make things better. It is only going
to get worse for CNN.

Anonymous said...

@9:13PM: Had to laugh at your last line,"Rick, nobody is watching."
Yes, it is sad but true. CNN is getting worse, not better. 360's total last nite was 530! If Fox can get millions, and MSNBC can pull a million on an Olberman repeat, what is wrong with CNN??
Tonite, for example, 360 repeated the race experiment. "Which child is the bad child?" Which network is the worst network???

Anonymous said...

360 needs to hit it out of the ballpark right from
the start. The lead story matters. Last night was
not bad but one segment would've been enough.
The terror baby conspiracy just shows how crazy
things are getting and Anderson did it right in
the open by presenting facts. Recently there was
a huge article on Digg and it mentioned the NYT
was the biggest source of news for the website.
Younger people go to legit news sources to find
out what is going on and do not take the blogs
as seriously as people who are 50 + who get
news from the Huffington Post or Drudge.
So right off the bat viewers know it is not
true and who is behind it because they have
been on FaceBook, Twittter, Google and Yahoo,
CNN or Time, etc. I don't understand why
CNN is running repeats for Larry King.Last
night they were live but tonight it is the
Elizabeth Edwards interview.Shaun Robinson
was in for Joy the other night and she go
higher numbers than Rick's List.CNN
Rick's List getting less than 100 thousand
in the demo right from the start is not
good. I really don't understand why Kyra
Phillips can't fill in for Larry. I know CNN
had Tavis Smiley on but they might want
to consider Jeff Johnson from BET who
has a younger following for people who
are interested in news.

Anonymous said...

If it is possible CNN needs to go for Bill
Wolff to replace Jon Klein. I don't know
if they would be able to get him but his
stock is rising with TRMS. One thing that
might help 360 would be fixing the blog.
Every morning they should ask people
what stories or news are you talking about
and is there anything out there that 360
might be overlooking. Originally the 360
blog provided links to cool stuff on the
web. Now there is nothing fresh first
thing in the morning. The original 360
blog was awesome. What happened?
I am sure the staff of 360 can figure out
what is real news and want is just the
craziness from ideological blogs. They
should really use the blog to reach out
to viewers and set up some sort of news
discussion for news junkies to exchange
There was even a time when the staff
reached out to viewers during the show.
interesting things they come across.
Does the blog have a producer or staff
anymore ?

Anonymous said...

MSNBC : Martin Bashir
Richard Lui
Thomas Roberts
Veronica de la Cruz



CNN : Elliot Spitzer
Piers Morgan



One of these cable news channels is not
like the other. Can you tell the difference?
One is hiring journalists and the other is
not.It is as plain as the nose on your face
MSNBC cares about the news and CNN
is downgrading.

Anonymous said...

It will be interesting to see the ratings for
360 later today. More than 450 comments are
on the blog from last night.It will be interesting
to see if the ratings are higher than they have
been in recent weeks.ICN has an item about
the pundits. I think it is time for CNN to stop
saying the pundits represent the people. They
give their takes on things via their political
affiliation and that is not the average person.
The 360 blog needs a relaunch.

Anonymous said...

The 360 Blog needs to disappear all together. It just posts positive views from the same people all of the time. If you have anything negative to say or a mere quality control suggestion you are put in eternal moderation. It is not a blog. It is an advertisement and promotional tool. Just another reason not to watch CNN.