Comments on: Maybe CNN’s ratings aren’t the real issue

By: Aaron Read

Aaron Read — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:47:30 +0000

More commentary on how CNN needs to fix itself: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/04/the-new-cnn-incurious-viewers-need-not-apply.html

By: BP Myers

BP Myers — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 01:18:10 +0000

@John Doherty said: public opinion has been left of the conventional wisdom on many recent occasions: the failed Clinton Impeachment, the political survival & election of Obama, pot decrim here in MA, etc.

And more recently, the overwhelming desire for a health care public option. Toward the end, it seemed almost as if the politicians didn’t believe the polls.

Still, can’t imagine it’s more than a year or two away, perhaps just in time for the “mandate” to kick in.

By: John Doherty

John Doherty — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:22:54 +0000

L.K. Collins says:
April 1, 2010 at 1:57 pm

>Moving the middle?

>Isn’t that what politics is all about?

Yes, but…with the right wing, it’s a shell game that the punditocracy buys into. The right wing noise machine manages to convince the punditry that the middle is “over here!!!, where we are!!!”, far more than public opinion indicates.

The right is much better with optics, slogans & packaging than the left, but public opinion has been left of the conventional wisdom on many recent occasions: the failed Clinton Impeachment, the political survival & election of Obama, pot decrim here in MA, etc.

By: John F.J. Sullivan

John F.J. Sullivan — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:14:02 +0000

You may get your wish., especially if King's own ratings continue downward. That would be unfortunate since King is unique on television in actually giving his (yes, often inane and bothersome) guest time to actually respond to the kind of question the average viewer would ask. And he's always polite (as are, I must say, Maddow, Cooper and, about 60 percent of the time, Olbermann).

By: L.K. Collins

L.K. Collins — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:57:53 +0000

Moving the middle?

Isn’t that what politics is all about?

By: John Doherty

John Doherty — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:37:08 +0000

Part of the problem with CNN is that it positions itself as an alternative to the partisanship of the competition, yet keeps bending over backward to accommodate the very loud & cranky extreme right wing. Recently they hired Erick Erickson of Redstate, calling him “a perfect fit” for CNN. He’s called the first lady “a Marxist harpy” and famously referred to Supreme Court Justice David Souter as “a goat f***ing child molestor”. They “balance” this sort of uncivil childishness with tired hacks from the first Clinton campaign, which was never that liberal back in 1992.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201003160037

Meanwhile the “left wing” network, MSNBC gives over three hours every morning to a former GOP congressman with squishy, non professional pol Mika to provide his “balance”.

And over on Fox? They offer a full range of views: religious conservative, economic conservative, mouth breathing tea party conservative, Goldwater conservative, etc…

Even when they are in the decline, the right manages to move the middle to where they say define it, and even the White House seems to buy this occasionally, like on the oil drilling lately

By: BP Myers

BP Myers — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:08:29 +0000

Yeah, it’s fun to make fun of him and all, but I think Larry King remains the best interviewer on television. Not his fault that the latest tabloid dog and pony show all make their way to his studio first.

But anyone who says, “I remember talking with Philip Wylie about that . . .” is forever okay in my book.

By: L.K. Collins

L.K. Collins — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:12:25 +0000

Like many things, it’s all a matter of perspective.

The same analysis applies to The New York Times and every other journalistic enterprise.

Businesses have the objective of being profitable. In this, journalism is the chosen vehicle for achieving it.