CNN President Jon Klein spoke with Reliable Source's Howie Kurtz about his controversial decision to hire Eliot Spitzer to host a primetime program. The conversation touched on the rumblings Spitzer's hiring has caused among CNN's legitimate journalists and the negative press it has incited. The interview was taped on Friday and aired on Kurtz's Sunday morning program.Sunday, June 27, 2010
Jon Klein Defends His Decision on Spitzer
CNN President Jon Klein spoke with Reliable Source's Howie Kurtz about his controversial decision to hire Eliot Spitzer to host a primetime program. The conversation touched on the rumblings Spitzer's hiring has caused among CNN's legitimate journalists and the negative press it has incited. The interview was taped on Friday and aired on Kurtz's Sunday morning program.11 comments:
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Leave it to Jon Klein to be totally reasuring about another stupid programming mistake. He must write all his own PR material as well. I do agree that Spitzer has shown genuine intellect on all issues, but I've never heard of the Parker woman, and obviously doesn't bring a following to the table.
ReplyDeleteI'll give them 6 weeks...at the most before we say it's another failure.
Nothing good will come of this for CNN.
ReplyDeleteI will be keeping an eye out to see what is
happening with TJ Holmes, Kate Bouldan
Brooke Baldwin, Don Lemon and Suzanne
Malveaux, Fredericka Whitfield and Reynolds
Wolf and the all platform journalists. The
silence from the CNN suits tells me this is
not even going over well at CNN .Jon King
has a political show on at 7 and now they
are adding another at 8. Another bad show
for Klein. The man has not had one hit
yet and has basically ruined CNN.Spitzer
has no business commenting on politicians
and their decisions. It is like the Catholic
Church speaking out about child sex
abuse since they tried to cover up the
bad behavior of it;s priest.
CNN is forgetting about a very important
ReplyDeletedemographic : women. It is a huge blunder
for CNN to not have a female with her own
show in prime time.It seems to me that CNN
seems to think female reporters are nothing
but window dressing and sidekicks for the
male anchors.It is pathetic that Krya Phillips
is the lone solo female anchor on CNN for
24 hrs.CNN is moving backwards and is out
of touch with reality. For a lot of women the
fact the Elliot Spitzer cheated on his wife
with prostitutes and gets a show on CNN
is just a disgrace and you will be hearing
a lot about this in the coming weeks. Do you
have any idea how many women are going
to be telling their boyfriends and husbands
we are not watching this guy. The big
problem is not that he cheated it is about
who he cheated with. This make CNN a
bunch of hypocrites.
I have to say Suzanne Malveaux, who is sitting for Wolf this week, is very good. Brooke Baldwin reminds me of a young Kyra Philips and they could easily be mistaken for sisters, but Baldwin was an entertainment reporter. What does she really know about the news she's reporting? She's reading a teleprompter.
ReplyDeleteHiring Eliot Spitzer does not make CNN a hypocrite. Why? Do they advocate not cheating? They haven't taken a stand one way or the other and at that particular time, women aren't watching anyway so I really don't agree with that comment.
CNN needs to be more informative and not
ReplyDeleteideological. that act is getting old. Morning
Joe is where CNN needs to go. Have people
who have a passion for the news and like
exchanging information and facts not rant,
CNN's motto should be , if you have not
heard it from us than you know all ready.
People are not going to watch left vs right
5 nights a week at 8.CNN is too busy focusing
on the pettiness and not the big picture of
actually informing the masses. This is exactly
what brought down Larry King. There were
times when Larry King had as many as 6
talking heads and it is just not worth even
watching.CNN numbers will continue to
drop since they seem to be adding more
talk and doing less news. I could not
watch CNN's coverage of Kagan today
because of this. Do you really need that
many people at the table.
Wow. I was just on ICN and TV By the Numbers.
ReplyDeleteInside Cable News says CNN's ratings are down
40 % at 4 and American Morning was 4th in
viewers on Friday. How much damage does Jon
Klein have to do before his bosses stop it. CNN
real regret this decision. Klein decided to diss
Wolf Blitzer in favor of Rick Sanchez and that
clearly is not going too well.
The problem with John King's show is the
ReplyDeleteformat and the guests. King should not
just do politics for an hour with political
analysts. You have to mix things up and
think outside what is a simple formula
of left and right counterpoints. Let's face
it Rick's List is nothing but a lame attempt
to copy Countdown.CNN is forgetting about
it's viewers and seems to think compelling
tv is opinion. Personally, I think CNN should
give the 1st hour of prime time over to it's
journalist and have them try and pack as
much news as possible in 1 hour.CNN is
a joke and has ruined it's brand. Where
is the reporting ? I can use Facebook &
Twitter for more news than I see on CNN
all day long. All you have to do is use
Mixx as a news gathering tools.
CNN has boxed itself into a hole and it can't get itself out.
ReplyDeleteIt all goes back to Klein's decision to diss everyone else for one person and make "him" the brand. One person, no matter how good, cannot save the network. Roger Ailes got it right. He made ALL of them stars and they all fill a niche. Each one has a loyal following.
Today I listened to Megan Kelly. At first I said, just another pretty face, but she knew "her stuff." She was prepared, not winging it like Rick Sanchez. And it is not only Sanchez, who wants to wake up to an "old sour puss," like John Roberts? Well I guess Kyra, but she doesn't count.
But why are they less popular then Fox&Friends when Gretchen is soooo stupid?? Their recent total was 960,000 per day!! Stupid yes, but they had "energy," in their stupidity, and that matters to sleepy people in the morning!
Women are 52 % of the population and we
ReplyDeletedo watch news. The thing is CNN is failing
because it is not connecting with viewers.
What management needs to do is to go back
to university and study modern day broadcast
journalism. The emphasis is on storytelling
and actually taking people along for the news
and making them feel that they are experiencing
what you are covering; people want information
and they want it as fast as possible. There is nothing
special about getting on television going I think
this and I think that.So what a group of 4 yr
olds could give you their opinions about why
the don't like certain things. CNN is suppose
to be the adult in the room. The worst thing
CNN can do is to do little news in prime time.
Obviously CNN is not getting what it's viewers
are saying. You do get news from Morning Joe,
Countdown and TRMS.CNN is failing because
it's management can't get beyond ideology
and that is nothing but laziness in journalism.
If you just use the pundits you pay to comment
on the news people see the sham and know
that you a just simply being lazy and not
even trying.CNN needs to put people on the
air who act like they have got some sense
and find a way to convey to viewers they
love the news and enjoy bringing it to
their viewers. Bring us more news and less
talk.I guarantee you that Larry King was
crushed by Rachel last night. She was
actually doing news and he had 4 people
yelling back and forth. Who cares what
they think, it is just useless information.
MSNBC sees a news opening as well,
Rachel is going to Afghanistan and is
working o increase her reporting skills.
2 people who CNN should consider for
replacements for Klein are the executive
producers of Morning Joe and Rachel
Maddow. They are changing the game
and people love it because there is nothing
like it out there.
CNN should have given him a show on weekends
ReplyDeleteto see how things would play out before just
handing Spitzer the first hour of prime time.
People feel like he did not earn it.CNN is
making Elliot Spitzer the first face you will
see in it's prime time lineup and that is not
a smart decision. Cable news can no longer
afford to ignore women. The Forbes most
powerful list is out and guess what, Oprah
and Beyonce are the the top two.CNN needs
to have it's female reporters from diverse
ethnic backgrounds do a fast paces jam
packed news show. About 3 or 4 women
form CNN and CNN International and
use music to connect with the news of
the day. For example, Elena Kagan. How
about opening the show with Bonnie
Tyler's Here She Comes. Put together the
comments from senators and interweave
them with Kagan's opening statements
for a kick butt cold opening. Same things
with the 11 spies. Hello, the Police Every
Breath You Take. Use the news, music
video and sound to create a unique news
experience. Have you ever ran across
anyone that did not like music and it
sends the message this is a news show
like no other. Make it an eclectic mix
of news and information and rotate the
anchors each week so that it never gets
old.It can never be the same because
the music alone is endless.
360 needs to really get it's act together. Can
ReplyDeleteAnderson do something other than standing
around talking to James Carville & Billy, With
a hurricane coming to the region shouldn't
he be out doing some actual reporting. They
have to shift gears with the USCG have to get
the ships out of harms way. This story is about
to change and 360 is already there.