{"id":6375,"date":"2006-01-18T16:42:23","date_gmt":"2006-01-18T21:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6375"},"modified":"2006-01-18T16:42:23","modified_gmt":"2006-01-18T21:42:23","slug":"cnn-hits-the-trifecta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/cnn-hits-the-trifecta\/","title":{"rendered":"CNN hits the trifecta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a fascinating month for CNN. After watching Bob Novak <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/6109.html\">switch to Fox News<\/a>, the once-proud network quickly hired two far-right political figures to replace him: best-selling compiler <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/tvnewser\/cnn\/controversial_conservative_bill_bennett_becoming_cnn_political_analyst_in_06_30187.asp\">Bob Bennett<\/a> and far-right radio host <a href=\"http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/items\/200601170001\">Glenn Beck<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/tvnewser\/cnn\/cnn_signs_former_gop_rep_jc_watts_31043.asp\">make that three<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>CNN has found a new conservative commentator: Former Republican congressman J.C. Watts Jr. &#8220;will join CNN as a regular contributor to offer analysis on politics and policy for programs throughout the network,&#8221; Jon Klein announced today.<\/p>\n<p>Klein said: &#8220;J.C. is one of the most respected and effective conservative communicators in the nation&#8217;s capital. We are glad to welcome him to the CNN team and look forward to his insightful contributions to our network.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The natural complaint is point out that CNN has hired three far-right commentators in less than three weeks. And while it&#8217;s certainly offensive to see CNN strive to be Fox News-lite, it&#8217;s also worth noting how far the network&#8217;s standards have dropped. After all, Julius Caesar Watts, before joining CNN, had quite a career &#8212; first as an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/8694\">incompetent lawmaker<\/a>, and second as a star in the world of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehill.com\/thehill\/export\/TheHill\/News\/Frontpage\/040705\/watts.html\">infomercials<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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 &#8220;qualify to receive government money,&#8221; according to its website, www.ngcreg.com. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Watts&#8217;s new line of work has earned him some sneers. A senior Republican aide snickered about his role on television, saying, &#8220;<strong>It makes the Cher infomercials look serious<\/strong>.&#8221; (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><i>This<\/i> is CNN. How the mighty have fallen&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;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. &#8220;will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}