How has CNN changed?

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

forgive my ignorance, but I don't have cable. I keep hearing about it here, though. Have they hired a bunch of rw guns like MSNBC did with Savage, Scarborough, and Armey? Or is it more of a general attitude?

I keep hearing that viewers are leaving for MSNBC, who still has Scarborough on the air (and Mille ron its sister station), so it must be pretty damn bad if people prefer that to CNN, who I remmember as bieng slightly right of center, but no more so than the broadcast networks.

[physioex]

1. CNN tried too hard to be like Faux.....

There are hardly any shows with a "Strong Liberal", yet there are literally hundreds of conservative shows. If someone tried to have on a "Strong Liberal", I think it would help in their ratings...

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

5. who did they hire from the right?

and are carville and begala gone?

[physioex]

6. Noooooo.... They are still around...

But they hardly get any airtime.... All you get are those nuts Wolfie and Woodruff....And they both suck...

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

8. weren't they always there, though?

guess they're getting more airtime these days or have become even more slanted? judy was always bad, but i recall wolfe just being a teleprompter reader who was more boring than biased.

i'm not taking up for CNN or anything. I'm just trying to find out exactly what's up.

[physioex]

12. I really don't know what's going on either...

But things were a bit better when Ted Turner was in charge. Look as far as I am concerned, the best place to get your news is LBN. We at DU are better investigative reporters than CNN, Faux, MSNBC and bunch of other news sources combined. Basically I just use the news channel as a way to measure bias, not to get any news....

[Jazzgirl]

14. I check into DU many times a day.

I get more news here than anywhere. I am going to have to stop watching CNN since all I do is scream at the TV. Good thing I live alone. ;-)

[physioex]

15. Glad ya agree Jazzy....

:)

[Lancer]

7. Carville & Begala

are still there, but they just recently hired Bob Barr as an analyst, which probably tells you all you need to know.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

9. bob barr?!?

ok, i'm getting the picture now

that's the blessing of being a republican. you lose an election and you can always get a job on tv as an opiion guy (see also keyes, north, etc)

[Lancer]

2. My take

is that CNN has been moving further and further away from hard news. CNN also is handholding the WH like never before.

I'm at home all day, and since I don't watch soaps, I keep a news channel on at all times. It used to be CNN, but I can't stand Daryn Kagan (she's a dope); and Wolfie is just a shill for the right. Plus, there's way too much stupid "entertainment" stuff.

The really good reporters, like those in the Middle East, are just marginalized. And some of their other good ones, like Martin Savidge and Michael Okwu have recently defected to MSNBC.

So I watch MSNBC. It's not great, but I'll take it.

[SharonAnn]

4. Yes, lots of it is "opinion" because it's cheap and they don't

have to actually have real reports on the ground anymore and they don't have to actually check facts or write stories or edit them.

Just bloviate on and on.

[childslibrarian]

3. They are really biased

Judy Woodruff and Wolf Blitzer are the worst in the line-up. They just take the Repub talking points and run with them. They only allow Democrats on to answer accusations--and they give them very little time to answer and they talk over them.
One good point is Lou Dobbs and his mission to stop outsourcing of jobs overseas, but he can't make up for the rest of their slanted reporting. And they use the Gallup poll organization to run their polls--their method of data gathering is also biased.

[papau]

11. Brown, Dobbs, the "360" group and their crew are fine when the producer

in their ear lets them be. And the International crew is fine.

But even they (Brown, Dobbs, the "360" group) can have their shows swung right by the producer.

The rest of the crowd is pointless to watch, IMHO. Even headline news has a story selection bias to the right on occasion!

[liveoaktx]

10. Infotainment going for the Fox audience- book read- *News Flash*

by Bonnie Anderson

One thing the book points out is that one major target audience is the affluent conservatives, which they believe Fox has.

[carolinayellowdog]

18. Anderson is a must read

A lot of the problem is the infotainment approach to talent. Pretty white airheads like Zahn and Hemmer appeal to the new model; serious professionals leave in disgust or are laid off. Leon Harris and Joie Chen are among the many whose departures from CNN Anderson discusses.

She portrays Dobbs as the most corrupt of all and strongly suggest he deserves firing for conflict of interest.

CYD

[LizW]

13. My theory

is that the most desirable demographic in television is people who have some disposable income, and are stupid. The stupid part is more important that the disposable income part. It doesn't matter how much money people have if the are smart enough to be resistant to advertising.

Following that logic, and keeping in mind that profit is everything to CNN, I can see why they would go after the freeper demographic.

[Cleita]

16. It crept up when no one was watching.

I think it really started back during the Whitewater investigation that led to Monica Lewinsky all the time. At first the same talking head where there, but they slowly started leaving, or retiring like Bernard Shaw and were being replaced by RWingers. When I really noticed that this was not our CNN was right after 9-11.

Even though CNN suspended all regular programming to report, I noticed all the new faces suddenly reporting, like Paula Zahn and other familiar faces leaving like Bill Press and Greta VonSusteren. There were many more but I can't remember them. But it seems like new crew took over on or about 9-11. Only a few old timers, like Blitzer and Woodruff hung in there. It makes the LIHOP and MIHOP allegations all the more suspicious.

[EST]

17. On cable 'news' shows, specifically CNN, Aaron brown is unique

in being the closest to an actual hard news program and a generally even handed approach. Lou Dobbs is an old line solid conservative who has taken a realistic view of outsourcing and illegal alien invasion. The 360 program I know nothing about because I'm usually critiqueing Chris Matthews. All else on CNN that I have seen is mildly to crudely slanted toward the hate party.