Marketwatch.com’s Jon Friedman thinks Campbell Brown, “has found her footing” at CNN.
Brown has established herself as a voice of reason who doesn’t shout, preen, make wild predictions, delight in buttonholing people with “gotcha” questions or exploit the gaffes of the hard-working candidates (yes, including Sarah Palin). What’s especially striking about Brown’s progress is how she has redefined herself. During her decade at NBC News, Brown had two obstacles: she often got lost in the shuffle of NBC and MSNBC correspondents and was frequently associated with the fluffy, cat-stuck-in-a-tree stories that weekend anchors often have to handle in the place of the breaking news that takes place during the week.
Friedman does deliver a dose of reality, too, writing “Brown’s approach to the news hasn’t yet translated into a ratings victory. With an average of 908,000 viewers a night, Brown trails time-slot rivals Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly (2.9 million) and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann (1.3 million).