CNN to Republicans: Drop Dead
by Tony Lee 11 Jan 2014, 1:22 PM PDT
CNN Chief Jeff Zucker
might not be very good at getting ratings for his Nielsens-challenged network,
but he’s great at hurling insults. On Friday, Zucker tried to diminish both the
Republican Party and Fox News by alleging that the GOP is being run out of Fox.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was having
none of it, firing back at Zucker to let him know that Fox News is not the
GOP's mouthpiece. "Hey Jeff Zucker, we're the Republican Party and we
speak for ourselves, pal," Priebus tweeted. "Have a great weekend."
At a Television Critics Association event
on Friday, Zucker alleged that "the Republican Party is being run out of
News Corp. headquarters masquerading as a cable news channel" without
acknowledging that he runs a network that accused former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
of being responsible for the attempted murder of Gabby Giffords without any
evidence whatsoever. CNN has been repeatedly called out for its left-leaning
biases that masquerade as "objective" news, which is why the
network's primetime ratings hit a 20-year low last year.
It’s an interesting strategy Zucker has:
trash the Republican Party and, by extension, all Republicans.
Though Zucker tried to paint Fox as a
network that shills for Republicans, Americans do not think so, as more
Democrats and independents watch Fox News than CNN and MSNBC. In addition,
though Americans once went en masse to CNN to get information about breaking
news, that is not the case anymore. Fox News regularly outpaced CNN in ratings
when breaking news or tragedies--like the Boston Marathon Bombing--consumed the
news cycle last year.
Indeed, it’s little wonder that CNN is no
longer the go-to place for breaking news, now that celebrity chef Anthony
Bourdain has proven to be the hottest show on the channel. If you want big news
on the local cuisine of Bolivia,
CNN is on it. But if you want news about, well, news, try Fox. Meanwhile, as we
know, MSNBC is now All About Rachel Maddow; no news there, either.
These factors led The Hollywood Reporter
to declare that Roger Ailes and Fox News had won the cable news wars.
That’s why CNN has been rocked with
reports that though the network wants a primetime shakeup due to its moribund
ratings, it cannot even find effective hosts from within, as hosts like Piers Morgan
have doubled-down on their liberal causes like increased gun control. Yet,
Zucker maintained that CNN was the most objective news outlet.
"There is no network covering
American news as seriously and substantially as CNN," Zucker said.
Despite Zucker's claims of seriousness,
CNN's reporters have asked President Barack Obama "essential" things
like what his New Year's resolution was at a White House press briefing.
Critics have described the network as stale, without a voice, and catering to
the media and D.C. elite that most of the country dislikes.
In fact, nearly every commentator on
CNN—from Republicans like Ana Navarro to Democrats like Paul Begala, all
speaking for the "No Labels" or "St. Albans” crowd in Washington—are hardly
distinguishable anymore. They all represent the same, smug “Boomtown” mindset.
The sort of Navarro Republicans—yes, you, too, Lindsey Graham!—who don’t care
if Zucker trashes the GOP; indeed, in swanky Georgetown salons, they might well be
agreeing with the “enlightened” criticisms of the GOP.
In many ways, CNN and its hosts are facing
the same criticism that Meet the Press and its host, David Gregory, are dealing
with as Meet the Press's ratings have precipitously tanked since the show has
acted a mouthpiece for those in the permanent political class like Republican
Mike Murphy and Democrat Bob Shrum.
"MSNBC has [already] announced
they're out of the news business," Ailes told The Hollywood Reporter in an
interview that was published this week. "They have several different
hosts, but it's always the same show: Republicans are no good.”
Ailes said that "[Zucker] had a big
hit with a whale one night [the documentary Blackfish]. I guess he's going to
do whales a lot." The Fox News chief was merely responding to Zucker's own
admission from an interview in November in which he said that the network would
be moving away from news and to "a variety of unscripted formats,
including other travel shows, and 'immersive' nonfiction programs."
But Zucker started to walk back those
remarks on Friday, saying CNN wanted to be "essential" in its news
coverage.
Perhaps Zucker changed his tune because
CNN's non-news programming has tanked as well when the shows have not been
about whales. CNN's sports show, Unguarded, has achieved dismal ratings. CNN's
New Year's Eve programming with the raunchy Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper
also hit a five-year low in ratings and dropped 40% from the year before.
That’s a steep drop. If Zucker were smart, he would accept his fate and go with
the food safaris and whale documentaries. Yes, he would go down in history as
the man who made CNN “The most powerful name in-non news,” but at least he’d
pull a rating.
In the meantime, however, any Republican
who tunes into CNN ought to know that he or she is gazing into the face of an
avowed enemy.
Jeff Zucker
Jeff Zucker
is the president of CNN Worldwide,
a director at the Robin Hood Foundation,
and was an executive producer for the NBC Nightly News.
Note: CNN
Worldwide is a division of CNN.
Walter
Isaacson was the chairman & CEO for CNN,
and is the president & CEO for the Aspen Institute (think
tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen
Institute (think tank), the Robin Hood Foundation,
the International Rescue Committee, and the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank).
George Soros
is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote
Open Society.
Brian
Williams is a director at the Robin Hood Foundation,
and the anchor for the NBC Nightly News.
Pew Poll: Seven-in-Ten Americans
Do Not Know Brian Williams (Past Research)
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Tom Brokaw
was a director at the Robin Hood Foundation,
an anchor for the NBC Nightly News,
and is an overseer at the International Rescue
Committee.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews
is the president of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank), a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), a director at the
American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview
with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for
population control by involving the United States in war)
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank)
was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank).
Ted Turner
is a co-chairman for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank), and the founder of CNN.
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