CNN hits the trifecta

January 18, 2006

It’s been a fascinating month for CNN. After watching Bob Novak switch to Fox News, the once-proud network quickly hired two far-right political figures to replace him: best-selling compiler Bob Bennett and far-right radio host Glenn Beck.

Actually, make that three.

CNN has found a new conservative commentator: Former Republican congressman J.C. Watts Jr. “will join CNN as a regular contributor to offer analysis on politics and policy for programs throughout the network,” Jon Klein announced today.

Klein said: “J.C. is one of the most respected and effective conservative communicators in the nation’s capital. We are glad to welcome him to the CNN team and look forward to his insightful contributions to our network.”

The natural complaint is point out that CNN has hired three far-right commentators in less than three weeks. And while it’s certainly offensive to see CNN strive to be Fox News-lite, it’s also worth noting how far the network’s standards have dropped. After all, Julius Caesar Watts, before joining CNN, had quite a career — first as an incompetent lawmaker, and second as a star in the world of infomercials.

Former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) has begun a new line of work that has been popular in recent years with retired and defeated politicians: advertising.

Watts, who won a congressional seat in 1994 and before that was quarterback of the Oklahoma University Sooners, has been appearing in an infomercial for National Grants Conference (NGC), a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that helps individuals “qualify to receive government money,” according to its website, www.ngcreg.com. […]

Watts’s new line of work has earned him some sneers. A senior Republican aide snickered about his role on television, saying, “It makes the Cher infomercials look serious.” (emphasis added)

This is CNN. How the mighty have fallen….

Man, what the hell ever happened to CNN. What a train wreck.

  • Headline News just had an hour of non-stop coverage of a crazy guy driving in circles in Houston. Beats watching Watts. I say CNN just hires the crazy guy permanently.

  • For the first time, I may use my parental lock on TV – just to block out CNN. They have finally reached the bottom of the dung heap.

    If it weren’t for C-Span and my lousy reception without cable, I would probably give up cable all together.

  • True enough, Mr. F, but this just seems bad strategy. (And analogous to party politics. . . )

    CNN will never out right-wing Faux News. The Loonies of the Right (apologies to the Capitol Steps) will always be loyal to “their” first network, and their iconic Roger Ailes. So that audience is really not in play.

    As they become Faux Deux, however, they lose progressives who thought just maybe CNN was interested in presenting the news, however lacking in depth of coverage. And probably apolotical types, too, who find Faux too strident and too unfair and unbalanced (on so many levels).

    So CNN doesn’t add much if anything, and loses some and maybe a lot. This makes business sense how exactly?

  • Fox and Cnn are in the tank….
    one by one the lights go out.
    And now the great eye turns to MSNBC and PBS.
    whispering “you are getting sleepy…..”

  • It’s weird, isn’t it? It’s like we’re living in one of those alternate universes from the Sliders TV show.

  • CNN, once a pioneer in 24-hour news programming, is turning into a “me-too” network. Just as we see in the movie-making business and the television business, when something works, others try to copy it. Fox News jumped ahead of CNN on the airwaves and now CNN is trying to play catch-up by becoming Fox News 2. So much for having any shred of journalistic integrity.

    CNN is going down the toilet faster than a bowl full of dead goldfish! The left and the moderates will stop watching it and the right will stick with Fox News.

    “I’m NOT watching you, CNN.”

  • Typical knee jerk reaction by a network that is more concerned about ratings than they are about the news. The real question is will Beck have a longer run than Mike Savage did on MSNBC? I like to think CNN is more news orientated than MSNBC, so hopefully this Beck thing ends up being nothing more than a dissapointing footnote for CNN.

  • Their first mistake was hiring Klein.

    Man….. he must be a Fox mole, sent to deliberately destroy CNN.

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  • I have sent an email to CNN telling them that I have BLOCKED CNN from my cable box….here is a copy of the link to join in and tell them the same for whatever personal reasons you may have:

    http://www.cnn.com/feedback/cnntv/

    Tell these Communists in your own words why you will not watch their network anymore. If you are a true american you will act on this!

  • Tell these Communists in your own words why you will not watch their network anymore. If you are a true american you will act on this! as written by
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    Well Tony, you are an obvious idiot for proclaiming yourself a true American for having blocked CNN. By the way, the word American should have been capitalized in the sentence you wrote showing your intolerance of my fellow Americans. And I called them “my fellow Americans” because I dont view you as a true American, rather a dumb american. Now be a good boy and desist your blogging activities immediately. Or perhaps you will further show your ignorance by writing a response.

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    • Comments are closed.