Fox billboard sticks it to CNN again (with pic)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 10/09/03 | TONY WILBERT

[Pokey78]

Fox's new message on a billboard across
from CNN includes the line
"Brought to You by Your Friends at Fox News."

Paula Zahn's new show on CNN is performing so poorly that even archrival Fox wants CNN to bring back Connie Chung.

At least that's what a comical new billboard Fox erected late Tuesday catty-cornered to CNN Center says.

"Come Home Connie. CNN Needs You," the billboard reads. "Brought to You by Your Friends at Fox News."

"We thought this would lift the morale and bring a few smiles to the faces of the CNN staffers in Atlanta," Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said Wednesday.

CNN officials were not immediately available for comment.

CNN canceled "Connie Chung Tonight" in March, prompting Chung to leave the Atlanta-based network. The network canceled the show, which did relatively well in the ratings but took flak for its tabloid style.

CNN replaced the show with one that featured Zahn and was designed to to sharpen CNN's hard-news focus. Last month, the show, which airs at 8 p.m., was relaunched as "Paula Zahn Now."

But the show's ratings have been disappointing.

During "Paula Zahn Now's" first month on the air, the number of viewers has fallen about 19 percent from the time slot a year ago, when Chung's program was airing. Zahn's show drew an average of 575,000 viewers during its first four weeks on the air.

The O'Reilly Factor, hosted by Bill O'Reilly, dominated the 8 p.m. cable news time slot.

Though the billboard's tone is meant to be comical, the message should hit a nerve at CNN, which has bristled at its declining ratings.

The Fox billboard at Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Marietta Street has featured several messages during the past several years, including ones welcoming Greta Van Susteren, who left CNN for Fox in December 2001.

Other messages on the billboard have promoted the morning show "Fox and Friends" and announced Fox's ascent to the No. 1 position in cable news.

In Manhattan, CNN has erected a billboard of its own across from Fox News. In February, CNN's billboard featured a smiling Paula Zahn and read, "Real News Makes the Difference."

[b4its2late]

LOL!

[gridlock]

...CNN's billboard featured a smiling Paula Zahn and read, "Real News Makes the Difference."

And she's a little bit (ziiiiiiiiiip!) sexy!

[1Old Pro]

LOL, FOX sure knows how to tweak CNN.

[1Old Pro]

At first I thought it read "Commie" and not "Connie".

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Ha! Hey you should email that to Fox. If CNN forces them to take it down, maybe they can just reword it! Not much difference in the meaning, is there?

[babaloo]

This woman is brilliant and takes no prisoners. Better she stay in the private sector than work for the White House where she would have to tone it down.

[zx2dragon]

LOL Ping

[Chad Fairbanks]

ahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa I remember that LOL...

[MHT]

I love Fox and am very disturbed about the smear job they are getting from a survey done by the University of Maryland (I didn't even know that Maryland had a university of its own). Unlike other surveys which have shown Fox viewers to be better informed than average citizens, this one found that more viewers of Fox thought that WMD had been found in Iraq and were also wrong about two other Iraqi war questions.

Just more fodder for the libs, like Franken, to run with.

[AFPhys]

This is hysterical to me! I absolutely love it.

Yep, it is childish - and I still love it!

(My motto: I can't help getting older, but I'll never grow up - when it comes to fun things like this)

[NYC Republican]

Paula Zahn is an idiot. I have never been able to understand how she gets work

She's wonderful on the eyes... Not as nice as Paige Hopkins, but not bad.

[bmwcyle]

Connie or the B*&^H that set up Newt's mother.

[TLI]

Ohhh, got it.

[nutmeg]

Catty-cornered? Shouldn't that be kitty-cornered?

Yeah, that's the term I've always used. I've noticed that 'catty-cornered' is now used pretty often. Where did that come from? Maybe it's a regional thing...?

[nutmeg]

FoxFan ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[LadyDoc]

last night I was watching CNNf, lou dobbs. They had a report about how the white house was planning to start giving speeches on Iraq, and it was very very negative, with the CNN whitehouse correspondent essentially giving the DNC line.

Dobbs let the segment go on without comment, and then WITHOUT A PAUSE, almost as if it was part of the same story, said with a straight face "and a gallup poll taken yesterday reported that the majority of Americans said that the press was liberal bias".

at first I wondered why Dobbs didn't break in with the usual linking story " and the next story is" or something like that.

But then I realized he must be under pressure not to dare question the line, and it was his underhanded way of not openly opposing the CNN anti bush line...since on paper he did everything correctly, but by placing the "bias" story right after an obviously biased story, only emphasized what was going on.

Does any freeper know the gossip about any of this stuff?

Dobbs is about the only non Fox commentator who wears a flag in his lapel...although I must confess I don't watch the news that much.

[Tamzee]

What a hoot! I don't feel at all sorry for CNN because they have to know that the liberal bias is causing their problems and they refuse to address it.

Go FOX!