Comedy News Network FAIL
[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
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!
Comment by sybilll — 10/5/2009 @ 5:53 pm
sybilll,
That Breitbart tweet turned up in the site traffic stats, believe me.
Comment by Karl — 10/5/2009 @ 6:09 pm
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.
Comment by DRJ — 10/5/2009 @ 6:33 pm
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.
Comment by wt — 10/5/2009 @ 6:33 pm
Nice “Iz in ur base, readin’ all ur talking points’ earlier today, Karl. And nice shot at the of your post here.
Comment by Dusty — 10/5/2009 @ 6:53 pm
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…
Comment by happyfeet — 10/5/2009 @ 6:55 pm
I thought CNN was a comedy network.
Loved those standups they did in Baghdad as the bombs were dropping.
Comment by AD - RtR/OS! — 10/5/2009 @ 6:58 pm
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.
Comment by Dmac — 10/5/2009 @ 7:07 pm
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.
Comment by SomeOtherSteve — 10/5/2009 @ 7:10 pm
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.
Comment by steve — 10/5/2009 @ 7:40 pm
But he’s not there anymore and hasn’t been for some time.
Comment by DRJ — 10/5/2009 @ 7:41 pm
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?
Comment by DRJ — 10/5/2009 @ 7:46 pm
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?
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 10/5/2009 @ 7:59 pm
Maybe they were combining the ratings for CNN & Headline News…
Comment by SomeOtherSteve — 10/5/2009 @ 8:01 pm
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.
Comment by carlitos — 10/5/2009 @ 8:35 pm
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.
Comment by Scott Jacobs — 10/5/2009 @ 8:55 pm
We do not get enough carlitos comments. That is not a good thing.
Comment by JD — 10/5/2009 @ 9:00 pm
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?
Comment by steve — 10/5/2009 @ 9:02 pm
That’s disturbing. Red Eye is horrible. I liked the talking newspaper gag tho. They should make the talking newspaper the host.
Comment by j curtis — 10/5/2009 @ 9:15 pm
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!
Comment by daleyrocks — 10/5/2009 @ 9:16 pm
CNN unloads another clip into the stinking corpse of the MSM. Oh, the humanity!
Comment by Chris — 10/5/2009 @ 9:34 pm
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?
Comment by one-eyed-pirate — 10/5/2009 @ 10:09 pm
Speaking of CNN and FNC…. Neil Cavuto is the best anywhere, anytime. Glenn Beck is fun and informative.
Comment by krusher — 10/6/2009 @ 2:51 am
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.
Comment by Uncle Dan — 10/6/2009 @ 5:47 am
I wouldn’t be surprised if the CNN piece was in *reaction* to your discussion of “crippling parody” and its potential effect on Obama.
Comment by SarahW — 10/6/2009 @ 6:34 am
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.
Comment by tim maguire — 10/6/2009 @ 7:42 am
#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.
Comment by Rochf — 10/6/2009 @ 7:49 am
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?
Comment by Dmac — 10/6/2009 @ 7:52 am
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.
Comment by steve — 10/6/2009 @ 1:31 pm
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
Comment by Randy Haddock — 10/6/2009 @ 2:09 pm
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.
Comment by DRJ — 10/6/2009 @ 2:10 pm
“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.
Comment by steve — 10/6/2009 @ 2:52 pm
[...] 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 [...]
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