CNN's downward spiral into tabloid TV continues to accelerate. As I read
this NY Times article, I noticed some familiar names:
[CNN president Jonathan Klein] has also sought to take a page from the playbook of local television news and encourage some reporters to put more of their personalities in their reports. It is not insignificant that he is being advised in this effort by Joel Cheatwood, a former news executive in Miami and Chicago who is well known for using loud sound effects to amplify crime stories and for the failed effort to make Jerry Springer a commentator in Chicago in the late 1990's.
In a segment last Wednesday on the program "Paula Zahn Now," for example, Rick Sanchez, a former local news anchor who worked for Mr. Cheatwood in Miami and who joined CNN last year, strapped on a device known as a shock belt - worn around the waist, it can deliver 50,000 volts of electricity to a person's body - and then gave a simple command: "Do it."
Moments later, Mr. Sanchez moaned audibly, crumpled to the floor, and, still panting after being helped to his feet, reported: "It hurts. It's painful. But no one's dead."
I still remember what Cheatwood and Sanchez did to local TV news in Miami during the '80s. When WSVN Channel 7 lost its NBC network affiliation, they salvaged its ratings by inventing the formula that has now corrupted all local news shows. First came the zooming graphics and sound effects, and the flashy sets with giant video walls and no desks. Then came Sanchez' nightly reports from crime scenes -- which always featured him squatting in front of yellow police tape, often with a sheet-covered body laying in a pool of blood visible in the background. (When the Fox network came along a few years later, guess which Miami-area station became
their affiliate?)
Rick Sanchez is not a journalist, he's a cheap entertainer, and Joel Cheatwood is not a producer, he's a promoter. They are turning TV news into the equivalent of pro wrestling. Our only hope is that the next time Rick straps on the shock belt, the voltage is turned up a lot higher.
UPDATE: Commenters below have informed me that The Daily Show covered this last night. Here's the video.
More commentary at The Situation Room