Daily Show vs. Early Start: Early Start Fights Back...

Mediaite’s Nando Di Fino writes about Ashleigh Banfield responding to Jon Stewart’s criticism of the show’s live phone call segment. Well, at least Banfield didn’t totally make a fool of herself by bursting out into song as Erin Burnett did responding to Colbert.

More to the point however is that Stewart is right (and that’s something you don’t see me write very often). The segment is dumb and has no business being on a news program. Waking up journalists on the air? What is this? The Howard Stern show? That type of segment is something even the almost newsless broadcast morning programs wouldn’t attempt.

CNN’s morning programs are new. They can ill afford to have bad press at this stage because it will set a tone for how the shows are viewed. So far the most public thing Early Start has to hang its hat on is the “Wake ‘Em Up” segment and it’s getting that public attention not because the segment is working but because it’s not working. That’s not good.

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