Accuracy in Media
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CNN and Cooper In Ratings Nosedive


By Don  |  May 31, 2009


CNN's strategy of playing to the middle to distinguish itself from Fox and MSNBC appears to have fallen flat.

From the Politico

On day one, CNN ruled cable news.

 

But while viewers may flock to the network for election day or the Inauguration, day 130 is a different story.

 

CNN, which just took home a Peabody Award for its 2008 election coverage, and dominated cable-news ratings on days when politics took center stage, is having trouble getting those viewers back on other nights.

 

Since Obama took office, CNN’s prime-time audience has dropped sharply, raising doubts about whether the network’s middle-of-the-road strategy can be effective against more opinionated programming on Fox News and MSNBC.

 

CNN President Jon Klein is quick to brush aside concerns about specific ratings metrics, and chatter online about the network’s prime-time decline.

 

Klein, who last year trumpeted CNN’s quarterly win over Fox News in prime-time viewers in the 25-54 demographic preferred by advertisers, now maintains that the nightly block is just a fraction of the daily schedule, and that his network remains committed first and foremost to high-quality journalism.

A ratings freefall like the one CNN is experiencing would normally lead to a radical overhaul of programming to stem the tide but for some reason Klein seems content to stay the course and watch the network crumble.  Has Kelin forgotten that lower viewership means less ad revenue in an already tough climate which will only hamstring the network even more?

 



Comments 14 Comments  |  Post a Comment


Chris
June 1  at  10:26 am  |  #1  |  Link

CNN and Cooper’s nosedive is further indication that it is not thier ratings tanking, but also that of Time Warner. Last Thursday, Time Warner announced they have split off from AOL. In 2001, AOL had 22 million users. Now, AOL has 6 million.

Problem is that you have people who work for Time Warner who also work for News Corp, owners of FOX News. These people need to be confronted about their company loyalties. They are Larry McReynolds, Chip Caray, Frank Caliendo, Bernard Goldberg, Nina Easton, Kyle Petty, Bill Webber, Ralph Sheheen, Matt Yocum, Dick Stockton, Adam Lashinsky, Pam Oliver, Jane Hall, Charles Krauthammer, and Bill Kristol.

The time to confront these double agents is NOW!

Former_Democrat
June 1  at  10:52 am  |  #2  |  Link

The only thing that stink attracts is flies and CNN and Cooper lost their journalistic integrity and stink to high heaven.

Wesley in Dallas
June 1  at  12:55 pm  |  #3  |  Link

As does MSNBC, anyone believe Matthews or Olbermann have any credibility? I have notice Tucker Carlson has moved to Fox News. When he was welcomed from the “other” news station, he said, “Thank God Fox offered me a job, I was sick of lying all the time.”

If you have yet to read Bernie Goldberg’s newest book, “A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media” I highly recommend it, he has come full circle to the GOP.

As for Jane Hall, Charles Krauthammer, and Bill Kristol, as pundit’s on Special Report, (especially Krauthammer) are agreeing more with the Republican views than the Liberal ones, at least while on Fox.

As far as I am concerned, given all MSM, there is no longer any journalistic integrity, except for most of Fox News. Hannity gets on my nerves, but the real news shows are completely fair.

sheryl
June 1  at  2:40 pm  |  #4  |  Link

The problem is, people know if you tune into CNN, your not getting all the news. You can tell by their website as well. Fox News has great anchors and commentators and truly is fair and balanced. The bad coverage on the tea parties hurt them as well… like it or not, people of all parties were at the tea parties.

Brian
June 1  at  2:45 pm  |  #5  |  Link

As a news consumer I think no news outlet provides a good service. At least we have the internet but I suspect big media and big government will not tolerate that much longer.

Ada
June 1  at  3:38 pm  |  #6  |  Link

Where CNN has gone wrong is that instead of them really being in the center they have moved more right of the center.  I use to watch them religiously but they changed.  Now I watch them every now and then.  I mostly watch MSNBC now.  They seem to have turned into instigators and antagonist instead of really reporting the news.  Most of the time they are busy tearing someone apart.  I miss Ted Turner.

Llewellyn
June 1  at  8:57 pm  |  #7  |  Link

Judging by the comments above, the perennial flaw in ratings is not about JOURNALISM. It never was and never will be. It’s about POPULARITY. So it is fallacious to decry CNN’s or Anderson Cooper’s integrity as journalists under the mantle of pointing out that viewers have found other things to watch which they like more. That’s tantamount to to denying the validity of facts or data on the basis that they don’t fit one’s model of reality. C’mon folks, you have to take the total picture into consideration - ‘though it is kinda groovy when loud-mouthed corporate suits get hoisted by their own petards, isn’t it?

Chris
June 1  at  10:47 pm  |  #8  |  Link

Cooper is another example of the bias that is so prevalent in the “state-run media” now. Is it any wonder why CNN is the latest scared cow of Time Warner to be collapsing that empire. Let us not forget that late last week, AOL is being sold off from Time Warner. Prior to their 2001 merger, AOL had 22 million subscribers. Today, that number is 6 million. It is part of the comnpany’s arrogance that is bringing Time Warner down big time.

Cooper, along with his fellow sleaze at CNN, including Blitzer, Cafferty, Hendricks, Bill Schneider, Bonnie Schnieder, Jeras, Ngyuen, Whitfield, Roegsen, MacGinnis, King, and Chetry, seem more hellbent in destroying this country than telling the truth.

Wesley in Dallas
June 2  at  9:27 am  |  #9  |  Link

There is so much vile and hate on MSNBC, I blocked it, so I don’t accidentally see or hear the Commies, Chris Matthews or Keith Olbermann (originally Olbermann was a sports caster on two networks, and was fired for his acerbic and hateful attitude).

It was MSNBC that started the vile “Teabagging”, before I blocked it, my nephew came into my office and ask was Teabagging was, and why was it funny. I had to look the term up on the internet to see that it is a homosexual sex act. Yeah, real classy station, it is no wonder their ratings are the lowest in all cable news. More English speaking people watch Telemundo than MSNBC, it should be taken off the air.

CNN has changed formats so many times it isn’t funny, trying to get somewhat close the the #1 News Channel, Fox News (With the exception of Hannity). Investigative reporting by Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly have caused Louisiana Governor Jendal to ask US attorney’s to look into the ACORN/SEIU office in New Orleans. The building is a converted funeral home converted into a small business building with 6 offices. Although the records in N.O. show 270 companies running out of the building, hell…you could not get 50 people in there, much less 270 Companies.

But “all” ACORN donations are funneled through there. Even ACORN members higher up in the organization are ticked off about where is the money? They have even appeared on the Factor and Glenn Beck to tell what they know about what is going on at Elysian Fields Ave., New Orleans.

TK
June 2  at  4:20 pm  |  #10  |  Link

Anderson Cooper doesn’t seem to have the kind of on-air “charisma” (or innate personality) that the other prime-time talking heads have - and doesn’t seem suited to a nightly, prime-time gig that would appeal to the average “newstalk” viewer.  He’s too low key, too quiet, too calm - and, I think, too even-handed.  He seems much more like a Charlie Rose-type than a Matthews-Olbermann-O’Reilly-Hannity type - and his background is very different than theirs, too.  And - he’s not controversial - a definite necessity in the “infotainment” world.

And, in the end, he’s probably more suitable to the network reporting niche and developing feature stories than he is to daily news commentary and cable-news-talk.

Mo
June 2  at  10:50 pm  |  #11  |  Link

Cooper Anderson is known (to me) only by his lewd tea bagging remarks and prepubescent snickering on air….

Yeah—a real professional.

LOL on MSM
June 3  at  6:31 pm  |  #12  |  Link

LOL   CNN took a nose dive after Obama’s election?
Maybe people found they, too, had been had!

Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me!  LOL   A hopeful “Good-bye, CNN”

Diane
June 3  at  11:30 pm  |  #13  |  Link

Why hasn’t anyone in the media talked about Alex Jones’ 2 hour free internet film regarding The Obama Deception ? I just learned about this today.  Is everyone in the media scared to touch that with a ten foot pole…..  Or did I miss something ?  And if AIM reported on this already, then I sincerely apologize.

Wesley in Dallas
June 4  at  7:23 am  |  #14  |  Link

Diane,

I remember seeing that iFeatue, but I am focused on a project and an average of well over 400 emails per day, which I start at 3:30am.

The MSM is never going to report anything that the Right likes to be reported on, or if it is anything that goes against the extreme left of the socialist networks do not want the common person you to know about. Every one of them gave headline news to the Dr. Tiller killing, but the Islamist Killing one Recruiting Soldier, and wondering another wasn’t reported in the MSM, oh maybe page 16 in the NYT. They also din not comment on the documentary of called Indoctrinate U, which turns out to be a pre-curser to Ben Steins’ Movie, Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed.

I also didn’t hear much if anything regarding the new ‘al-Qaeda four pounds of Anthrax warning’ coming in from the south through a tunnel under the border. Which is said to be able to kill 330,000 people. It got a small sound bite on one MSM news station, but they did not play the video clip.

And where the details of the Islamist killing and wounding Army Recruiter’s. One News station reported the story, but never mentioned the Black Man had converted to Islam a couple of years ago, and did not use his Islamic Name.

In fact, the MSM never reported on the beginning of economic improvement before he got his two trillion, plus the upcoming of another 1.6 trillion more of our tax dollars needed to continue making the country a socialist state. In 2007 Obama said in Rallies, “We are no longer a Christian Nation, but did say we were a strong Muslim country.

Here comes Obama’s Egyptian Speech right now at 6:16am CST, time here is measured by EST. He’s talking about tensions between the West and Islam, and globalization.

One thing about his speeches, you do not need to take laxatives.

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