Yeah, that and the fact that they are getting their asses handed to them on a daily basis by Fox News.

Not enough refugees for Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper to exploit.

The war is stale.

BillCo: Yeah, that and the fact that they are getting their asses handed to them on a daily basis by Fox News.

The little guy has no chance against the main stream media.

CNN needs more cowbell.

I can't imagine why the Twitter News Network would be having a hard time getting viewers.

doyner: Are you actually saying that CNN provides "news?"

The thing is that they haven't given up entirely. CNN HN is pretty much infotainment 24/7, but the main CNN channel does actual news several hours each day, and when they do it isn't too bad. What I would like to see is for them to remove news from personalities as CSPAN has done.

Who the fark gets anything other than local news from TV?

People really do like being lied to.


/of course that dress doesn't make you look fat

So, instead of getting rid of softballer Blitzer, let's give him even more air time.

TwoHead: So despite the girl with the rack who tilts her head, the girl with the rack who rolls her eyes, the fake hipster chick with the fake glasses, the guy from the gay men's site and that guy with the crazy english accent that provides expert commentary on both royal celebrations and the EU collapse with the same hyperbolic enthusiasm their numbers are still down?

And while we're at it, they could stop dragging in commentators from ESPN, and ANY COMEDIAN. It isn't like there is a shortage of authorities on ANY subject willing to talk on camera, and now that we're willing to use skype footage it's pretty darn easy.

Sports guys and comedians can hype their shows somewhere else, dammit.

Apparently, there's not enough hate on CNN to sustain a steady audience.

Here's the thing: I thought news was supposed to be about truth and accuracy without bias, not ratings and selling ad slots. The whole point of journalism is to shine an unfiltered light on everything, including sponsors, government, and even other journalists.

Fox News has distorted that beyond all recognition as journalism. They have turned the two-minutes' hate into the 24-hours' hate, and as a result they sell a lot of ad space to companies that don't mind having their name associated with ideals like greed, bigotry, xenophobia and constant, frothing anger.

That's not to say the other journalistic outlets didn't start doing that before Fox News did, though. The networks all abandoned truth in favor of sensationalism, and accuracy in favor of inciting anger to keep people watching all the ads. The news became a TV SHOW, instead of a service, when ratings started to matter to them.

Here's an idea journalists: If you want ANY respect, then stop worrying about ratings and tell me the truth without nuggets of bias, anger, or political leanings. Be journalists, goddammit. I don't think I've seen a real journalist since the early 80s.

And no, Jon Stewart doesn't count. He's a comedian who happens to be good at picking on alleged journalists, not a journalist himself. It's not good that his "news" is more accurate or truthful than the "news" delivered by the "real" journalists-- It's pathetic that we're at a state where a comedy show is less bullshiat than the real thing. We shouldn't be here. We should have a free press that tells the truth and doesn't follow any political or ideological agenda.

To put this in comic nerd terms: I want Perry White, Clark Kent, and Peter Parker. What I get is J. Jonah Jameson and (even worse) G. Gordon Godfrey.

Or in real-world terms: I want Walter Cronkite. I got Fox & Friends.

Here's an idea, journalists: If you want ANY respect, then stop worrying about ratings and tell me the truth without nuggets of bias, anger, or political leanings. Be journalists, goddammit. I don't think I've seen a real journalist since the early 80s.

Sorry, forgot a comma. That bugged me.

And Spongebob gets more ratings than all the news networks combined. In 1991, there was 30 cable channels, there's about 900 now plus internet. NBC nightly news got a 30 share in 1985, now it's a 1.

Haters gonna hate. I don't know much about the TeeVee network because the only thing hooked into my idiot box is a set of rabbit ears, but CNN.com is nothing if not a bastion of penetrating and incisive investigative journalism. Take LZ Granderson for instance. Truly an exemplar in the independent press's vital mission of keeping our government accountable.

Remember when CNN made a deal with Saddam to only report positive things out of Baghdad in order to be allowed to stay there?

Yeah, that was awesome.

Sex sells. God help me, I can't stop looking at the blonde, right-wing women on that channel. I couldn't care less about what they're saying. I just like looking at beautiful women, especially crazy, beautiful women. CNN has Soledad O'Brien, that's it....and she seems too sane for me.

Let me just point out...Erin Burnett is crazy hot!

fireclown: The thing is that they haven't given up entirely. CNN HN is pretty much infotainment 24/7, but the main CNN channel does actual news several hours each day, and when they do it isn't too bad. What I would like to see is for them to remove news from personalities as CSPAN has done.

Whoever the hell ruined CNN HN should be forced to mine salt in a mine in Siberia. If there are no salt mines in Siberia one should be created just for that person or persons.

I used to like that channel.

I really would like Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin and Soledad O'Brien with Christine Romans to succeed and stay on television in their current morning lineup for a very long time.

StreetlightInTheGhetto: They had a chance to go the respectable slow-but-steady middle route and be the BBC equivalent in America (yeah, yeah, BBC America exists) for reliable and relatively even handed news. But ratings don't go up that quickly so they go infotainment out of desperation grasping onto every last social media trend with their final dying breaths.

The BBCs image as the gold standard is sort of undeserved these days. I love me some BBC, and I try to listen to their world edition podcast daily, but they aren't exactly afraid of sensationalism or celebrity stalking, and they have moments of anglocentricism. However I do give them tons of credit for reporting news in a calm tone. If you're looking for some good in depth coverage, you might want to take a deep breath and check out Al Jazeeras english service. I was stunned at how not insane it is.

DubyaHater: Sex sells. God help me, I can't stop looking at the blonde, right-wing women on that channel. I couldn't care less about what they're saying. I just like looking at beautiful women, especially crazy, beautiful women. CNN has Soledad O'Brien, that's it....and she seems too sane for me.

If stepford wives are your thing, then I guess you're all set.

Personally, I find them all sort of repulsive. They have fake hair, lying faces, and no scruples. Many of them seem to have an I.Q. hovering around that of an exceptionally bright turnip or a slow trout.

I think what you're turned on by is the presence of halfway-decent legs in stockings. That must be it, because that's their only redeeming feature, and it, too, is a lie. Stockings make any decent pair of legs look good. It's what they're made to do.

Otherwise, I am forced to believe you like blonde, nasty, fake women with snotty attitudes and vacant stares. I have to believe that you can do better.

The problem with 24/7/365.25 news outlets is that really there isn't enough news that warrants that amount of coverage out there.

You get increasing amounts of fluff pieces, Tons of political blather from both sides, focusing on minutiae, and giving both sides equal time, no matter how inane the other side's argument is. (particularly bad on CNN)

I will say that at least MSNBC is somewhat smart in knowing that weekends are pretty much devoid of much news so they play documentaries from 10pm Friday night through Monday (with a few hours of actual news coverage each day)

rocketpants: Prebsoltoo: [www.televisioninternet.com image 420x275]
Let me just point out...Erin Burnett is crazy hot!

Agreed!

Also this...

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No pic for you, but I typed Carol Cos...
and the autocomplete's first line was Carol Costello legs.
What I found oddest about the interwebz out there is that out of all the Carol Costello autocompletes, "husband" came up before "hot".
And you might be right. I bet she snorts when she laughs

CNN also just (apparently) wrongly reported that the individual mandate was struck down. Not a good week for them

The only thing cable news is good for is watching Robin Meade on mute.

Anderson Cooper minus the Ridiculist baloney, Fareed Zakaria, and Christiane Amanpour are pretty much all I'll watch on CNN, and I won't even go out of my way for that. I must admit that I have warmed to Piers Morgan (I'm not compelled to hurry past CNN on the dial like I was when Larry King was busy decomposing in the same chair). During election season, David Gergen's medicated-turtle act is pretty good too.

Lately CNN is basically un-watchable

Do they need to change their tag line rather than - "The Worldwide Leader in News"

Maybe "We haz news sometimes!!"

I hope they are doing better than MSNBC, who is apparently trying to prepare us all for shower rape by running some flavor of "locked up in prison" all frakking weekend long.

Can't wait for November.

/hot

Id have more respect for outlets like Fox and CNN if they did the actual job of a journalist and held all public figures accountable for their actions instead of just the ones on the "other side". Everytime I am flipping around and I stop on CNN it is usually something celebrity related or if they do go political its a celebrity studded fund raising event. Fox is no better. They are just usually outraged about everything. Usually its media related like what new cartoon character might be gay. I think the hardest I laughed at them was when Obama took office and they went on about how he liked the elitest dijion mustard. Cant really take either of them serious. But I guess they are serving their masters well.

Zalan: The problem with 24/7/365.25 news outlets is that really there isn't enough news that warrants that amount of coverage out there.

You get increasing amounts of fluff pieces, Tons of political blather from both sides, focusing on minutiae, and giving both sides equal time, no matter how inane the other side's argument is. (particularly bad on CNN)

I will say that at least MSNBC is somewhat smart in knowing that weekends are pretty much devoid of much news so they play documentaries from 10pm Friday night through Monday (with a few hours of actual news coverage each day)

You know how I know you've never watched Al Jazeera?

Theyre truly the last journalists with any integrity. Which is.... interesting.