Thoroughly Anderson Cooper: TV News for Liberals (Like Me)

Cable News Irony Alert: CNN, Fox and The Disappearing General Audience

Posted by Michael Scherer Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 1:05 pm

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn appeared Sunday morning on Howard Kurtz's CNN show Reliable Sources to discuss her comments in my TIME magazine story this week. She continued her criticism of Fox News:

But let's be realistic here, Howie. You know, they are widely viewed as, you know, part of the Republican Party. Take their talking points, put them on the air. Take their opposition research, put them on the air and that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is.The ironic part came later, during the commercial break. All morning, CNN has been intermittently running a promo for Anderson Cooper 360, a show that has long billed itself as a classic straight news program with an investigative front man who digs "beyond the headlines" with "many points of view, so you can make up your own mind." The new promo, by contrast, consists of a woman's voice, pitching Cooper's show as, essentially, a liberal alternative to Fox News: "I'm a lifelong Democrat," she says, "and that's why I watch Anderson Cooper." Hmmm. The voice goes on to say that Cooper is the person she can turn to hold "right wing" conservatives accountable. Cooper is not exactly aiming for the political middle ground here.

But then who is? MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz are committed liberals, increasingly focused on the dual project of holding President Obama to a liberal line and attacking his detractors. Fox News, on the other hand, is well, Fox News. Dunn, on Kurtz's show, made a point of criticizing Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace for "fact checking" an Obama administration official but not its other Republican guests. So it goes.

If anything, the Anderson Cooper promo is just the latest evidence of what Fox News president Roger Ailes seems to have known long ago: Cable news viewers seem to want an ideological slant to their information. The cable audience has fractured beyond the general news programming.

The ratings tell the story: In September, according to Nielson, the top thirteen cable news shows were on Fox, led by the networks conservative pundits: The O'Reilly Factor (2.6 million households), Sean Hannity (2.1 million), Glenn Beck (2.2 million), and the less political Greta Van Susteren (1.8 million). The top non-Fox shows are CNN's Larry King (921,000), Countdown with Keith Olbermann (881,000) and Rachel Maddow (827,000). Only then, in the 17th spot, does Anderson Cooper make a showing, with 746,000 households in the 10 p.m. hour.

Have you seen his new porn... er, promo? I think I have... I must have. I guess I'm so used to CNN and Anderson that it all blurs into one big, sexy, silver-haired face!

UPDATE 1/2 an hour later: Working on this post and watching TV at the same time I got to see the promo they talk about in this TIME's article. It is a woman speaking, but there is also a male voice, albeit quieter, speaking at the same time as the woman -- two voices at once. And the ad is right, it is a way to say "Fox News, we are going to keep you accountable for your bunch of lies," and I hope CNN and Anderson continue to do it! The only problem with the ad is the fact that there is no Anderson except for one single picture of the Silver Fox at the end of the ad, a cute picture, but, Hey! Which picture of Anderson isn't cute? I say: like in any other ad, the more you show, the more you sell. Well, maybe next time they'll ask me.

Off topic. Waaay off topic; but interesting and funny nonetheless. Ze Frank, besides being cute, is an alternative to Jon Stewart's handsomeness and "The Daily Show." Jon is the comic side of the almost fake news, Ze is the funny side of the serious news. Just watch this 03:29 min. video and enjoy the latestests! Besides Ze is cute... Did I mention that Ze is cute? He is!