ROTFL: Clinton News Network Lost 31% of Viewers in One Year
Red Herring
Whoring for Bill Clinton Takes Heavy Toll on CNN :)
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(nypost.com) CNN is abuzz with talk that its president Rick Kaplan will be
booted for letting the once mighty news channel lose nearly a third of its
viewers in a year.
Rumors at CNN headquarters in Atlanta also held that Kaplan's own boss, CNN
Chairman Tom Johnson, also was under the gun over the ratings slide.
"Six months ago I would have thought Kaplan would go and that Tom would
stay, but now I don't know," said one CNN source.
CNN had no immediate comment.
Kaplan was under pressure last year for being at the center of two of the
network's worst debacles.
The network prez admitted the full blame for a fiasco on "NewsStand, " a
show he launched based on parent Time Warner's magazines. The debut segment
said that U.S. commandos used nerve gas on other American troops in Vietnam,
but had to be retracted. Lawsuits are pending over the story, entitled
"Tailwind."
"With the 禅ailwind' scandal and the newsstand flop, it looked like he would
go," said one CNN insider. "I'm surprised he's still at CNN."
Kaplan was also blamed for causing a personality feud that drove away CNN
"Moneyline" anchor Lou Dobbs, who had been the most watched man on cable TV.
CNN turns 20 in June, and invented cable TV news, but cable rivals are
making big inroads into its audience, which is off 31 percent since last
year to an average 365,000 viewers an hour over the full programming day.
In daytime hours, business news channel CNBC has more viewers than CNN for
the first time. CNN's prime-time ratings are also down 20 percent. CNBC,
MSNBC and Fox, whose parent News Corporation also owns The Post, have been
eating into CNN's marketshare.
Some industry sources speculated that CNN's business news channel, CNNfn,
could get axed since it badly trails business news rival CNBC, 13.3 million
homes to 72 million homes.
Insiders at CNNfn doubt the plug will be pulled on CNNfn since the network
isn't that expensive, and may be able to get wider distribtuion with the
rollout of digital TV.
Insiders said CNNfn will be used for video streaming in the new media
landscape following Time Warner's planned merger with AOL later this year.
Kaplan, who went to CNN two years ago from ABC, has found detractors,
critical of how he changed CNN's usual hard-news format.
"Rick is driving CNN into the ground and he's spent a lot of money doing
it," said a CNN source. "He's diluted the brand with all his soft features,
and made CNN lose its edge as the place people turn to when they want
breaking news."
"CNN had it, and Rick lost it."
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Wilson
It's a credibility thing.
Their political news, "Inside politics" and "Campaign 2000" shows are
nothing more than an extention of the Clinton boiler room. That's
fine, but if they want to appear fair and balanced, they fail
miserably. I have much more respect for Limbaugh and Geraldo, who tell
you where they're coming from, than the CNN gang.
Hopefully the economic necessities may lead to certain changes.
But it won't be until after the election.