There is not shortage of opinions on cable TV news. There’s also no shortage of opinions about cable TV news. Today, two perspectives, from two Washington, D.C. publications.
First, Col. Ralph Peters pens this op-ed for The Washington Post about why he decided not to re-sign his contributor contract with Fox News (a claim which Fox refutes):
You could measure the decline of Fox News by the drop in the quality of guests waiting in the green room. A year and a half ago, you might have heard George Will discussing policy with a senator while a former Cabinet member listened in. Today, you would meet a Republican commissar with a steakhouse waistline and an eager young woman wearing too little fabric and too much makeup, immersed in memorizing her talking points. This wasn’t a case of the rats leaving a sinking ship. The best sailors were driven overboard by the rodents.
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For The Hill, Jeffrey McCall, a professor of communication at DePauw University, says CNN has lost its way.
CNN wants to be “the most trusted name in news,” and likes to suggest it is on the objective, high road compared to more partisan competitors at MSNBC and Fox News Channel. News consumers who are political moderates or right-leaning, however, have a hard time buying that promotional line. The nation could benefit from the CNN of yesteryear. Real news with real journalists running the show. There is a place for a cable news channel to fit in between MSNBC and Fox News. For that to happen, CNN must embark on a reinvention of itself. That seems unlikely with the current leadership and current anchor talent in place.