A number of you have written asking why I’ve got it in for CNN. Thanks for asking.
Over the past few months, we’ve all read an interminable number of articles which outline CNN chief Jon Klein’s grand plan for CNN. He blathers on quite a bit about "storytelling" and other such nonsense, but you and I both know that when push comes to shove, he’s really only talking about one thing: Beating Fox. Hence the headline of the latest NYT article featuring Klein’s pensees, "CNN Seeks New Ways to Battle Fox News". At last, the truth is out. It’s obvious that it’s been Foxification, not "storytelling", that’s been driving the editorial decisions at CNN, from the hagiographical Ashley Smith pieces and interviews to the shameless pandering for Red State viewers and even the electrocution of the talent for ratings (as this latest episode makes all too clear, CNN isn’t a union shop).
But here’s the thing. Lean in closely while I say this, and get Jon Klein over so I don’t have to repeat myself.
CNN is competing against the wrong folks. Why? Because they’ve been suckered into playing along with the fiction that Fox is a "news" channel, which it isn’t. Fox is a delivery mechanism for a news-like product consisting of propaganda and infotainment, but one thing it DOESN’T broadcast is news. For more on this I refer you to OUTFOXED. And yes, I realize that the word "News" is Fox’s middle name, so to speak, but so what? I’m reminded of Stan, the character Eric Idle played in THE LIFE OF BRIAN, who asked his fellow revolutionaries to start calling him Loretta. Just because they obliged didn’t make him a woman, you know.
Since FNC is really in the entertainment business, perhaps it would be useful to compare the ratings of one of its primetime shows to another in the same time slot. Compare, if you will, THE O’REILLY FACTOR, the program Fox boasts the loudest about, to TNT’s LAW AND ORDER, with which it competes. On any given night, a ten-year old episode of L&O consistently beats "The Factor" by at least a million viewers, if not more. It’s fun to compare apples to apples for a change.
So here’s my message to Jon Klein: Cut it out. You have really great people working for you and you run what once was a justifiably proud network. I only scold because I care. And for God’s sake, put the jumper cables and cattle prods away. You’re scaring Aaron Brown.
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