I needed a good laugh today…I knew I could depend on CNN to provide it.

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:29 PM Permalink

Jonathan Klein of CNN provides the comedy relief for today in The New York Observer:

…according to Nielsen data provided by CNN, through the end of November, the cable network’s total day and prime time audience had increased by 3 percent overall and 5 percent in the crucial 25-54 demographic versus the same stretch last year.

Still, the network continues to chase Fox News in across-the-board ratings, and at the same time must fend off MSNBC, which so far has enjoyed a 20 percent jump in total year-to-date viewers over last year—thanks in part to the popularity of its late-night “doc block,” which often features grisly true-crime narratives and repurposed Dateline programming.

“When they do that, they’re really competing with Court TV,” Mr. Klein later told NYTV in an interview in his office overlooking Columbus Circle. “They’re saying, in effect, we give up trying to cover the news in any meaningful way. It enhances our brand. We’re the last man standing in terms of covering the news. We love that.”

Got some news Klein can report about CNN: Not only are you Faux Noise hangers-on, but the reason - one anyway - is that CNN has the worst programming of any news station on the air.

Watch CNN for 15 minutes in the morning when you get up and - barring something hugh like a missing white girl - you have heard every bit of news they are going to report FOR THE WHOLE DAY. It is the most pitiful news station on the air now: uninformative, conservatively biased, willing to gladly shill for the administration, and thoroughly propaganda-filled. They spend more time trying to avoid reporting the truth about Iraq than anything else.

Its news readers are so busy trying to be smarmy, smooth-talking, cheerful snake oil salesmen that it is a laugh a minute as they attempt to show their "charm, wit, and intelligence," all of which they lack in spades. (When I want news delivered by someone with a real personality I turn to Jon Stewart or Keith Olbermann.)

Yep, CNN and Jonathan Klein. Comic relief everyday of the week (if you can stand watching for that first 15 minutes).

Labels: CNN, journalism, mainstream media