Patterico's Pontifications

10/5/2009

Comedy News Network FAIL

Filed under: General — Karl @ 5:47 pm



[Posted by Karl]

CNN ran a segment fact-checking last weekend’s SNL cold opening mocking Pres. Obama’s lack of accomplishment (Allahpundit’s subhead: “Yes, really”). So at least some of the president’s media enablers have the concerns about it I raised this morning.

CNN ought to concern itself with CNN’s problems.  Fox News Channel’s Red Eye is now drawing higher ratings in the key demo at 3 a.m. than CNN’s Campbell Brown gets at 8 p.m.  Red Eye is also beating MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CNN’s American Morning and HLN’s Morning Express.

If CNN wants to mix comedy and news, they should learn to do it on purpose, like Red Eye.  Otherwise, the joke is on them.

–Karl

33 Responses to “Comedy News Network FAIL”

  1. Well deserved shout-out from Andrew Breitbart:

    andrewbreitbart Patterico is an exceptional blogger, and a great online investigator. http://tinyurl.com/yb9pdg5

    Frequent lurker, seldom commenter, but, wanted to give a big Amen! to Andrew’s tweet!

    sybilll (d1f4df)

  2. sybilll,

    That Breitbart tweet turned up in the site traffic stats, believe me.

    Karl (246941)

  3. Why do the newspapers and networks continue to fight over a dwindling market? Basic business sense would tell me to try to capture some of Fox’s market. IMO they don’t have to sell out their beliefs to add one real conservative program to the mix, but obviously they disagree. Maybe it’s a modern-day version of the Maginot Line.

    DRJ (b008f8)

  4. That is so infuriating. Where was the segment about how Palin never actually offered to play the Clarinet during the VP debates, and McCain never actually went onto QVC? So ridiculous.

    My favorite is the excuses the guy makes on healthcare. It’s stalled in Congress, so Obama shouldn’t take the blame for it in this SNL sketch. What? Now you’re going beyond just the merits of the satire, and instead just defending Obama outright. Terrible.

    wt (ed53e0)

  5. Nice “Iz in ur base, readin’ all ur talking points’ earlier today, Karl. And nice shot at the of your post here.

    Dusty (7bba43)

  6. that’s unreal, those ratings for Red Eye… The Warner Bros. monkeys should throw CNN in with the TIME magazine losers when they ditch them…

    happyfeet (6b707a)

  7. I thought CNN was a comedy network.
    Loved those standups they did in Baghdad as the bombs were dropping.

    AD - RtR/OS! (03146a)

  8. Any network that would hire Rick Sanchez and that Trust Fund dwarf doesn’t deserve ratings – and they also have some ignorant person in the mornings as well, can’t remember her name.

    Dmac (5ddc52)

  9. I convinced the wife that we should cancel satellite service. We don’t have cable, either. I don’t miss CNN at all, not that the TV stayed parked there for long.

    When it started out, CNN was a great idea, but as Ted Turner realized what he could do with pumping his ideology into the news, it went downhill. It continued to do so, even after Ted was out of the picture. It seemed like they resorted to doing cheap, liberal-slanted copies of FoxNews before I cut off service.

    SomeOtherSteve (babbe4)

  10. IMO they don’t have to sell out their beliefs to add one real conservative program to the mix, but obviously they disagree.

    CNN (HLN) ordained Glenn Beck as a TV host. The one-hour, one-man show aired twice weeknights for 2 1/2 years.

    steve (fa9f65)

  11. But he’s not there anymore and hasn’t been for some time.

    DRJ (b008f8)

  12. steve,

    But I agree Glenn Beck is a good example. His ratings grew 200% at CNN. Why doesn’t CNN try to find another Glenn Beck?

    DRJ (b008f8)

  13. CNN ran a bumper last night saying how they were #1, and beating FNC…

    What demo were they using, and what non-similar time-slots were they comparing?

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  14. CNN ran a bumper last night saying how they were #1, and beating FNC…

    What demo were they using, and what non-similar time-slots were they comparing?

    Maybe they were combining the ratings for CNN & Headline News…

    SomeOtherSteve (babbe4)

  15. Apparently, the Red Eye producer is from Chicago. He threw out the first pitch at a White Sox game a few weeks ago. I didn’t catch his name, but he was funny.

    carlitos (e4a83c)

  16. I didn’t catch his name, but he was funny

    I don’t think Bill Schulz is the show’s producer, but I could be wrong…

    He is, along with Andy and Greg, the only other regular – the rest if a rotating cast that keeps the show fresh.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  17. We do not get enough carlitos comments. That is not a good thing.

    JD (3086d2)

  18. Why doesn’t CNN try to find another Glenn Beck?

    If one existed, they’d make an offer.

    You assume they’re not about making money?

    steve (fa9f65)

  19. That’s disturbing. Red Eye is horrible. I liked the talking newspaper gag tho. They should make the talking newspaper the host.

    j curtis (baef6f)

  20. Nothing says in the tank better than fact checking a comedy sketch about Owebama and then blowing the fact checking with bias!

    Good job CNN!

    daleyrocks (718861)

  21. CNN unloads another clip into the stinking corpse of the MSM. Oh, the humanity!

    Chris (a24890)

  22. Wow, what a set! It looks just like CNN and it’s all pretty elaborate too! And who’s that playing Wolf Blitzer? Whoever it is seems pretty amateurish, but he’s got his voice down pat, I’ll say that much.

    But seriously – how much money do you think this little bit of “investigative journalism” cost them as a network? I’m betting it’s a pretty hefty price tag. They put some real effort into it too (no less than 3 of them on it, not including research and producers??)!

    When I first saw this, I nearly choked on my coffee for laughing at it – to say it’s pathetic is giving them too much credit.

    I’m seriously wondering how much it did cost them! Anyone know what that much time + research costs the average network?

    one-eyed-pirate (1b46c8)

  23. Speaking of CNN and FNC…. Neil Cavuto is the best anywhere, anytime. Glenn Beck is fun and informative.

    krusher (1c5999)

  24. CNN has been a disgrace and a water carrier for Democrats since the early nineties. This is why FoxNews continues to outperform them. I have home pages on every one of my computers set to FoxNews so it’s the first thing I see when I go online from any computer.

    Uncle Dan (e4735c)

  25. I wouldn’t be surprised if the CNN piece was in *reaction* to your discussion of “crippling parody” and its potential effect on Obama.

    SarahW (692fc6)

  26. Time Warner Cable in New York City recently shuffled their channel line up. Among other changes, tey moved CNN from channel 10 to channel 78.

    That tells you something right there.

    tim maguire (4a98f0)

  27. #26–why stop at 78? Frankly, if the number of the channel is tied to the fairness and accuracy of the station, CNN should be 508.

    Rochf (ae9c58)

  28. CNN (HLN) ordained Glenn Beck as a TV host. The one-hour, one-man show aired twice weeknights for 2 1/2 years.

    And then he summarily left CNN to go over to Fox. Why would that have happened, do you suppose? Do you have some type of point to make?

    Dmac (5ddc52)

  29. And then he summarily left CNN to go over to Fox.

    His contract was up and he accepted a multi-million dollar, multi-year competing offer.

    Kiran Chetry, Greta Van Susteren, Bill Hemmer, Paula Zahn….it’s a lengthy list…have worked in both shops. Their corporate suites conduct raids all the time.

    steve (c1321c)

  30. Did you see the awesome #CNNFactCheck hashtag on Twitter? I wrote about it on my blog: http://randyhaddock.com/post/206053279/cnn-fact-checks-snls-obama-skit-and-hilarious

    Randy Haddock (3f41f7)

  31. There is some network crossover, steve, but there isn’t much crossover with radio even though some talk radio broadcasters are telegenic enough to work on TV. The MSM never seems to think of them. It may be because radio hosts are largely conservative and, if so, then I think they are letting their personal politics hurt their business interests.

    DRJ (b008f8)

  32. “some talk radio broadcasters are telegenic enough to work on TV”

    And a few, like Glenn Beck, jump at the chance.

    Maybe Laura Ingraham or Ann Coulter itch for their own 5-day-a-week TV slot. I think they’d pass.

    steve (c1321c)

  33. […] was spoofed by Saturday Night Live! The media must come to his aide! I learned about this from Karl at Patterico’s Pontifications, who caught wind of this from Allahpundit at Hot Air, who read […]

    Quick! To the ramparts! « Doesn't Everybody Have a Blog? (bd1ac8)


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