CNN’s Primetime Struggles…
The LA Times Matea Gold writes about CNN’s primetime woes…
But the right move for CNN remains an open question. The pressure is on the network to come up with a successful program in a time slot that has been a thorny problem for the last decade. While Fox News and MSNBC showcase their top talent at 8 p.m., CNN has cycled through three hosts since Greta Van Susteren left for Fox News in 2002. She was followed by Connie Chung, whose show was canceled after less than a year by new management who viewed it as too tabloid, and then Paula Zahn, whose low-performing newscast was dumped in 2007 when Brown was lured from NBC News.
Brown was initially optimistic that a straight news program could compete against the sharply opinionated shows put on by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann at that hour. But she sounds decidedly more pessimistic now.
“People are drawn to the echo chamber, and they want to have their opinions validated more often than they want to have their opinions challenged,” said the anchor, who has not said what she plans to do next. “And trying to present an unbiased perspective is simply harder.”
The difficulties that CNN faces at 8 p.m. are endemic of the broader challenges confronting the network. CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein has cast it as the only nonpartisan cable news channel, eschewing the bluntly opinionated hosts that dominate prime time on the other news channels.
Inside Cable News 
May 31, 2010 at 10:03 am
“While Fox News and MSNBC showcase their top talent at 8 p.m., CNN has cycled through three hosts since Greta Van Susteren left for Fox News in 2002”
Gold makes the point that I’ve been making for years. The debate shouldn’t be opinion vs. straight news. Instead of putting their top talent (undoubtably Larry King up until a couple years ago) in the top time slot (8pm), they keep putting new, untested people who are destined to fail up against Bill O’Reilly. A few of us remember that O’Reilly’s show started as a half hour show called “The O’Reilly Report”. CNN would do itself some good moving one of it’s current, battle tested shows into the timeslot, and creating a new show for another timeslot.
May 31, 2010 at 2:59 pm
It’s not just talent, imho. It is the general philosophy of CNN. Although not prime time, I was watching Malveaux sit in for Blitzer today and she was talking about the oil spill and how mad Obama is that everyone is pointing their finger at each other. Malveaux conveniently doesn’t report that Obama is the one pointing fingers more than anyone. We watch Obama then we watch CNN report on Obama and the reporting and the actual words of Obama are so different. CNN needs to stop treating viewers as if they are stupid.
May 31, 2010 at 5:40 pm
You make a good point. There’s nothing more refreshing than hearing “Thanks for watching us.” It’s an acknowledgement that we aren’t stupid and we do have a choice. We want to learn something, but we don’t want to be talked down to.
May 31, 2010 at 9:39 pm
If Malveaux is reporting the day’s news about Obama’s feelings about the oil spill, she’s probably expecting her viewers to not need the entire history of his reaction to it spelled out every time. They’re not stupid..
June 2, 2010 at 8:13 pm
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