Tim Goodman, Television Critic for the
San Francisco Chronicle, takes on CNN News:
These must be great days to work at Fox News. Not only does the 24-hour cable channel beat rival CNN like a sick, sad mule, but Roger Ailes is so deep in the heads of CNN's managers that every time they stumble over themselves in chaos -- which is often -- the chairman of Fox News looks like some kind of psyops genius.
And now the CNN brain trust -- hard to write that without some snark on top -- has reshuffled its analyst deck and looks to be adding three conservatives. There's a rumor that CNN will soon announce that disgraced pundit Bill Bennett will join the team, though the odds are currently 99-1, which is right in Bennett's wheelhouse, virtuous gambler that he is.
I have three words for CNN; DON'T DO IT. The article also mentions the network has hired former Republican congressman and strategist J.C. Watts Jr. <snark>Ooh, goodie</snark>
Meanwhile, CNN's Headline News has hired talk-radio host Glenn Beck, who is just to the right of Attila the Hun. The network tried to pass him off as some kind of affable conversationalist. That lasted about four, maybe five seconds, until all kinds of media watchdog groups pointed out Beck's hate speech -- calling Hurricane Katrina victims "scumbags" and saying he hated some of the family members who lost relatives on Sept. 11 because, well, they complained too much.
Nothing like raising the level of our national discourse.
Of course, the "news" networks aren't interested in intelligent debate. Why have that, when "yellow journalism" is so much easier?
In the meantime, CNN will agitate itself into more confusion -- "Ha-ha, Ailes, we got Bennett!" -- as Fox News stomps it into sour grapes. Maybe someday CNN will stop simultaneously hating Fox News and wanting to be Fox News -- the Ouroboros of 24-hour newsdom -- and shift its priorities to something more attainable.
Like giving viewers a reason not to watch MSNBC instead.
Sigh. The only "news" program I can tolerate right now is Countdown with Keith. Well, that and the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. It's a sad commentary, but the Wolf Blitzers, Tim Russerts and Chris Matthews are so phony, I wouldn't buy it if they told me today is Friday. The media is in denial that they pretty much have become a cog in the Republican machine.