Posted on 03/25/2003 7:34:50 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
CNN has told Connie Chung, one of the its most prominent hosts, that it has dropped her prime-time show, effective immediately. Although CNN asked her to stay in some other capacity, she declined and will leave the network, an associate of Chung said Tuesday night. Chung, a longtime news anchor who worked for the three major broadcast network news departments before joining CNN last summer, was informed of the decision by Jim Walton, the new president of CNN, the associate said Tuesday. The show, "Connie Chung Tonight," which is usually broadcast at 8 on weeknights, had been suspended for coverage of the war with Iraq. Chung pressed CNN's management last Friday to put the program back on as soon as possible. CNN, a unit of AOL Time Warner, responded by telling her that it would decide over the weekend when it would bring the show back. Instead, its management called her in Tuesday to tell her the program will not resume when the war coverage ends. Chung has a contract, worth about $2 million a year, that has more than a year left. It promised her a prime-time program, Chung's associate said. "She was very shocked and extremely disappointed," the associate said. "She did the show she was asked to do even though she argued that she wanted to do a different kind of show. But the management changed and the new management said, 'We don't want that kind of show.' She was not given a chance to do something different for them." Walton became CNN's chief executive in January, succeeding Walter Isaacson, who had brought Chung to the network. CNN has since been seeking to revamp its image, looking to refashion itself as a harder-edged news network. This month, it dropped a daytime talk program, "Talk Back Live," saying it no longer fit with the network's new plans. Chung's program, which was built around interviews with personalities who sometimes were involved in less-than-serious events, like contestants from "American Idol," was criticized in some quarters of the network for being out of step with the new approach. The associate of Chung defended the show, saying that "when she was hired they said they didn't have a newsmagazine-type program and wanted her to do one. She said she didn't want to do that kind of show. She wanted to do a news show. But this is what they wanted." Most memorably, Chung was mentioned by Ted Turner, the CNN founder, who said in an interview that her show was "just awful." Coincidentally, in an interview only a few days ago, Turner said he regretted making those comments. The ratings for Chung's program were among the strongest on CNN and would not seem to mark it as a target for cancellation. Chung was watched by about a million viewers nightly, second only to Larry King's program on CNN, and it had grown stronger in recent months, sometimes beating King's show. The show was up more than 50 percent over the program CNN had in the same time slot last year. Throughout her career, Chung has consistently been among the most popular figures in TV news. CNN executives declined to comment directly on the decision to drop Chung's show. But one CNN executive said the move was not related to ratings. No decision has been made about a program that will succeed Chung's, the executive added. The associate of Chung said she would look for other opportunities at other networks. "Connie was hired by the old CNN crowd," the associate said. "There's a new crowd at CNN now, and they don't want people associated with the old crowd."
Does that mean we'll see a fair and balanced Connie in the future?
Dennis Prager The New York Times just published one of its most revealing articles in memory: "Outflanked Democrats Wonder How to Catch Up in Media Wars." Apparently, the Democratic Party is gravely concerned that its liberal message is not being heard. And the reason Democrats give is that conservatives dominate talk radio, Fox News, and the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times. Because of talk radio, two editorial pages and one cable news channel, liberals just cannot get their message across to Americans. Full disclosure demands that I acknowledge a vested interest here. I have been a radio talk show host for 20 years -- 16 in Los Angeles and the last four in national syndication (through the Salem Radio Network). So I read with a big smile how influential my profession is perceived to be. But all this begs two questions: why is talk radio so powerful, and why is it dominated by conservatives? The first question is particularly fascinating. That Democrats chafe at conservative dominance in talk radio is almost incredible -- because liberals dominate everything else. Liberals dominate television: Aside from some Fox News shows (remember the conservative Sean Hannity is paired with the liberal Alan Colmes), the liberals dominate everything on TV (with the exception of John Stossel's specials on ABC). They dominate CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC and CNN news broadcasts, and they dominate all television entertainment...
Chung will seek free agency in the ILL, the Irrelevant Liberals League, at most CNN can hope to obtain a conservative player to be named later. This is series....hugh stuff.
I cannot believe they did not start "the new CNN" by getting rid of that smarmy little twerp Aaron Brown. I was channel sufing through the cable news coverage last night and he and Gen. Clark were on. If people watch this bilge on CNN, it is no wonder the DOW and NASDAQ tanked yesterday. They interpret every news item the most negative way. I would swear it was a modern day Dunkirk the way they were describing the various news item coming in
This is exactly bass-ackwards. Connie was hired by the new CNN crowd, the AOL lackeys, who so totally FUBARed the place that they all got fired. Then all the old CNN crowd came back.
Of course, the old crowd doesn't really have a clue on how to beat Fox any more than the AOL drones did, but at least they're getting rid of the bigger embarrassments.
By the way, ten bucks says she files an age discrimination suit.
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