Will CNN go the Fox Route Like MSNBC?
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
CNN has slipped into last place among the 24 hour cable "news" networks, the New York Times reports. And that raises this question: Will CNN follow MSNBC down the Fox road to partisan glory? Since its debut, Fox has staked a place as the conservatives' home away from perceived bias of the so-called mainstream media. (Quick aside: Doesn't the fact that it has the most viewers ipso facto put Fox in the mainstream media?) MSNBC has gained traction in the last year or two by becoming the Fox of the left. So partisans on both sides now know where they can go to find out why they're right and the other side is evil.
Take the 8 o'clock hour. Conservatives can tune in to Fox to watch Bill O'Reilly skewer the left. Liberals can flip on Keith Olbermann and watch him lambaste O'Reilly. And CNN offers up the estimable Campbell Brown who it touts as "the only non-partisan cable news anchor at 8 pm, [offering] a common sense approach to reporting the day's news." The show used to be called No Bias, No Bull—but viewers seem to prefer both bias and bull, as CNN comes in fourth place at 8pm.
So the question is: When CNN decides to get partisan will they try to out-fox Fox or bigfoot MSNBC on the left? Stay tuned.
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Tags: CNN | Fox Broadcasting Co. | journalism | media | television | MSNBC | Fox News
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Reader Comments
Huh??
CNN at one time was good. Darn good. They reported news on an ongoing basis. BUT from day 1 it was slanted via reporter bias. Slanted to the left - like what? 85 % of all reporters? But they were a great source for near reat time news. Of course this was B4 THE INTERNET.
However - it slowly became more and more of simply an opinion journal for the Left. This accelerated way back about the time of the Crossfire days. Now CNN is simply a glossy & classy version of MSNBC. Their opinion panels are all stacked Leftward and half their supposed Republican types are RINOs.
MSNBC is a joke. Anyone who could watch more than 5 minutes of Oberman is a sad cookie. And when he is joined by Odonnell (sp?) we have the two stooges. And I last less than 2 minutes before I click back to Fox. Last night I was clicking around to see election results and MSNBC spent a great deal of time on the Maine Gay Rights issue and in about 1/2 hour did not address VA, NJ or the whacko NY Congress race.
I cannot figure how MSNBC could be ahead of CNN - guess many lefties appreciate the humor there more than the CNN serious attempt of at least a pretense of journalism.
CNN Is Heading That Way Already
CNN should try this (apparently) novel approach: report news. Their broadcasts are currently - for the most part - still reasonably watchable and rational. (FNC"s morning "Fox and Friends" has got to be the lowest IQ "information" program on the planet: watching it actually manages to be embarrassing EVEN if one does so alone.) CNN's best moment in maintaining SOME standards recently was when the laughable Glenn Beck departed Headline News and ended up on Fox, where he honestly belongs.
Viewers don't need THREE "news" channels of hyperventilating, true-believer silliness. But who's to say CNN hasn't been going that Fox-MSNBC route already? Beck moves out and now HLN drops in (good grief) one "Joy" Behar at 9 PM?
Apparently, America desperately needed HLN to bring abroad the "deep perspectives" of a ridiculous, obnoxious, former LI high school teacher turned comedian pontificating (if that is the right word?) on "global issues"? http://joybehar.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/30/catholic-church-to-larry-david-urine-trouble/
Why? Because she gets no other exposure anywhere else? We don't know what she "thinks" yet?
If CNN follows Fox and MSNBC over the cliff, what's left for those of us who just desire a news broadcast? Probably stream VOA over the web. Or find a rock to go hide under.
Thanks wahoo59 of FL
Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck & Co do not need my defending them. There is little they say I do not agree with.
Nor do I wish to change your poitical views. I do believe we all should examine our beliefs and base them upon factual information. Learning and correcting wrong ideas is never ending.
I opposed Bill Clinton's health care plan as I oppoae present mysterious plan. Have found little in Obama's agenda I can support.
To quote a pathetic Rodney King"
"Can't we all just get along ?"
Sorry about the wife...
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