“Meaningless Nonsense:” Jon Klein Criticizes Natalee Holloway & Fox News Accuses Him Of Hypocrisy

Why have cable news networks, and Fox News chief among them, gravitated to the Natalee Holloway case? “It’s easy and it’s brainless,” CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein tells Bill Carter in today’s New York Times. “They’re looking for an ongoing drama” like Law & Order, “except ‘Law & Order’ doesn’t do the same plot every night.”

Cable news has to stop “obsessing over this trivial stuff,” Klein continued. “There are an awful lot of things you can cover if you don’t have people tied up with this meaningless nonsense.”

Carter writes: “Fox News executives accused Mr. Klein of hypocrisy, saying the Holloway case had indeed been covered by CNN. They mentioned Nancy Grace, the prime-time host on CNN’s affiliated network, Headline News, who has done almost as many hours on Ms. Holloway as Ms. Van Susteren has.” But we know Ken Jautz is responsible for Headline News, not Klein. (Of course, CNN is having its cake and eating it too — HLN is becoming the lowbrow channel, the one that broadcasts car chases.)