Posted on 03/31/2010 7:05:51 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The future of CNN, never exactly bright the past couple of years, suddenly looked dire this week when ratings came out showing a 40 percent decline in prime time viewers since 2009.
Jon Klein, the network president, has consistently defended the network’s down-the-middle news strategy despite the increasingly large ratings leads opened up by MSNBC and particularly Fox, ..
So is it time for a radical re-thinking of “the most trusted name in news,” the network of Larry King, Anderson Cooper, Campbell Brown and Wolf Blitzer? We asked a dozen or so prominent media watchers, former industry executives and CNN personalities for their recommendations.
Their near-consensus: It has to change, get more personality, no longer be — as one media critic called it — “the view from nowhere.” ..
Bring back “Crossfire”
Ask a couple of former “Crossfire” hosts for a solution to CNN’s ratings troubles, and maybe it’s not a surprise what their answer is: Resurrect their old show.
Both Michael Kinsley and Bill Press — each of whom had stints taking the liberal side of the right vs. left political slugfest — think it’s worth a shot.
By bringing back “Crossfire,” they argue, CNN could continue with its strategy of not falling squarely on the left or the right in prime time, ..
Five years ago, one of Klein’s first orders of business after becoming network president was killing off the long-running show, a pioneer in high-decibel political debate which had been the recipient of harsh on-air criticism from "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart just a few months before.
“When he unceremoniously dumped it, Jon Klein said he wanted straight news and not commentary or opinion,” Kinsley told POLITICO. “And now he's got everyone expressing opinions left and right — because that's what people like.’
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Fix CNN? I thought stupid can’t be fixed.
“Down the middle” news at CNN. WTF is he smoking?
MSNBC is way ahead of CNN in the ratings.
That seems to be the party line— the moonbats in my office insist that CNN is a “moderate” or “establishment” news source, which to them means “not HuffPo or Daily Kos.”
They’re really so deluded as to think their reports are “down the middle”? Down the middle of the crapper, maybe.
Want to rescue CNN? Sell it to Rush and let him Dittocam his show from 12-3 and find some true balance for the network. Watch the commielib heads explode if that ever happened but it would destroy any talk of reviving the “Fairness Doctrine”.
They shouldn’t change a thing.
Why would I want to fix CNN? I want them to fail.
Liquidate it.
If CNN became another conservative voice on cable, their ratings would double. But I don’t look for that to happen. To liberals, ideology trumps profit.
Down the middle ? Of what? Das Kapital?
Instead of just kicking them while their down, I’m going to try to offer some useful solutions.
I think that if they were really serious about changing their tune they should let the public express their opinions on what they want to see. Of course I don’t think they will but they got to know what they have isn’t working.
I believe they can find a niche if they bring back the debates that made their commentary so engaging in the first place. What would also help is if they form an internal ‘bias commission’ who would publicly respond to viewer feedback and that would review their reports for bias (in fact something like that would help every major news agency).
CNN’s main problem is trust, I don’t trust what they say and neither do most people. The MSM is constantly harrying the government for not being transparent, well the people expect their media to be also.
Those jerks have foam coming out of their mouths most of the time they are on the TV.
Crossfire and Inside Politics were they only shows I ever watched on CNN and they are both gone.
Fix meaning surgically neuter, like a misbehaving dog? Right? Well, they might resist, but they'll get used to it.
They could try going on Jeopardy and win... Oh, wait, they already tried that and showed their incompetence at coming up with the right questions there too.
Find someone to run the place that understands that “down the middle” doesn’t mean tilted like the tower of Pisa.
Uhhh??? Report?
"While it’s hard to completely attribute cause and effect to TV ratings, it’s interesting to note that Countdown had better ratings (and a less severe year to year ratings and viewership loss) during the month of March, when Keith wasn’t on the air".... from TVbytheNumbers.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.