Althouse: "With Rivals Ahead, Doubts for CNN’s Middle Road."

April 27, 2009

"With Rivals Ahead, Doubts for CNN’s Middle Road."

New York Times headline.

Did it make you laugh?

36 comments:

Dale said...: Yes, it did.

Seriously - can someone please define for me the "middle road" that CNN is taking?; 4/27/09, 11:57 AM
Big Mike said...: Hilarious. Utterly hilarious.; 4/27/09, 12:00 PM
Quasimodo said...: can someone please define for me the "middle road" that CNN is taking?

yes - "middle of the road" is a left wing agenda, calmly delivered

anything to the right is extremist

left wing delivered passionately is center left; 4/27/09, 12:04 PM
MadisonMan said...: As I don't watch cable, can I assume that Middle Road is a show?; 4/27/09, 12:05 PM
MadisonMan said...: Oh, Should've read all the comments before mine.

Never mind.; 4/27/09, 12:05 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/27/09, 12:05 PM
Methadras said...: Yeah, I chuckled. CNN being called middle of the road might offend some of their leftist insiders.; 4/27/09, 12:06 PM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: Well, if the two lanes are the conservatively biased Fox News and the reactionary liberal MSNBC, being a solid liberal network is driving straight down the dotted line.

Item: MSNBC "news host" Keith Olbermann - who has called Republicans the "leading terror group in America" and later grinningly agreed with a guest who stated that the tax protesters were all racists and brain damaged - has the gall to question the journalistic standards of others?

Give him credit, he's a fraud but a damned confident one.; 4/27/09, 12:11 PM
The Dude said...: Sure, they are middle of the road. Between Marx and Stalin.; 4/27/09, 12:13 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: CNN is the middle road in middle earth.; 4/27/09, 12:16 PM
David said...: What else do you know that's middle road?

Roadkill.; 4/27/09, 12:25 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I think Dobbs and his substitute, Kitty something, are center right. The rest of the network is just to the right of DTL.; 4/27/09, 12:31 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: "...CNN, a network whose strategy is to steer the middle course in its news coverage."

Since when?; 4/27/09, 12:32 PM
Dark Eden said...: Is there some witty, literary example of someone carrying on a charade long after everyone has figured it out?

I am a dumb right wing redneck so I have no knowing of such things outside of comic books and bad movies.; 4/27/09, 12:33 PM
Trooper York said...: Miss Kitty is on CNN? I heard she croaked.; 4/27/09, 12:35 PM
Anonymous said...: this is rich considering how much bile and derision they dumped on the tea parties around the country the last few weeks. Gee, its hard to stay afloat financially when you appeal to only 38% of the country. Hmm what could they do to turn that around? Hmmmm a real head scratcher.; 4/27/09, 1:08 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: CNN's problem is that there is (barely) enough room in the market for one leftist network. They did ok, as long as they were that network (remember when they were called the "Clinton News Network"?) But now, MSNBC has passed them on the left, and there is little room in the market for a second, somewhat less hard left, network.

The good news for all may be that they really need to shift back towards the center in order to survive. Maybe even slightly right of center. But if their founder, Hanoi Jane's former husband, is still involved, that would be problematic. Well, with their "reporter's" antics at that one tea party is any indication, it is going to be very hard for them to accomplish.; 4/27/09, 1:12 PM
Hunter McDaniel said...: The only "news" network that even remotely qualifies as middle of the road is C-SPAN.

For all the others (CNN, FNC, MSNBC, etc.) everyone knows which side they are on.; 4/27/09, 1:13 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Miss Kitty?

Troop maybe I have CNN mixed up with my On Demand channel "Anchorettes Gone Wild".; 4/27/09, 1:26 PM
Rich B said...: "CNN uses less opinion than its competitors. Lou Dobbs is an exception." - caption on LD picture from article.

Hardy har har. How do they write this stuff without falling out of their chairs?; 4/27/09, 1:45 PM
mariner said...: AJ Lynch,

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a short-lived obscure TV series called "Gunsmoke".; 4/27/09, 2:19 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Mariner:

I was just kidding with Trooper. You should check out his blog- he has a good Gunsmoke episode there with James Arness and Charles Bronson.; 4/27/09, 2:52 PM
traditionalguy said...: Lets face it. Fairy tales are just plain boring. Poor CNN has no other product to sell. At least MSNBC is a little like a faked Wrestling Show in which grown men and women act out the latest insanity. An honest attempt analysis would sell both Right wing patriots and left wing Comrades for revolution. CNN needs some new talent developed that can do that fair analysis, not just talk softly and carry a big Lie.; 4/27/09, 3:06 PM
KCFleming said...: "...CNN, a network whose strategy is to steer the middle course in its news coverage...".

The conclusion they appear to have drawn is that they haven't been partisan enough. The upcoming change should be interesting, at least to those who still watch TV news.

I only catch egregious clips on YouTube.

That they might see themselves as centrist or non-partisan would be laughable if it weren't an outright lie.

They can't be that stupid.

CNN is steering the middle course about as successfully as the Titanic.; 4/27/09, 3:10 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: CNN is middle of the road, in the sense that it's somewhere between the networks and Fox News. It's just so far away from Fox News in comparison to the left.

If I had an artistic bent, I'd show a picture with a bunch of news vans labeled CNN, MSNBC, and the networks crowded in the left lane of a highway, with Fox alone in the right lane, maybe riding the shoulder.; 4/27/09, 3:22 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: CNN is "middle of the road?"

John King hosts discussions about torture policy with Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman and DiFi. From the center-right to the right. No libs allowed... anywhere, really, on CNN.

They have that hate-spewing sneering jackass Lou Dobbs on, sputtering his hate for Democrats and Obama. This guy gives Hannity a run for his money.

Then there's that shrew Nancy Grace who rips on defendants in obscure cases, insisting she knows the truth of the case. In lieu of news.

They have destroyed the credibility and respectability of the network. CNN sucks ass hugely.

And it's just short of Fox on the ideological spectrum.; 4/27/09, 3:39 PM
mariner said...: AJ Lynch:

Uhh, sorry.

I must be falling behind in my reading. ;); 4/27/09, 3:51 PM
SteveR said...: Nancy Grace is on CNN? Just like Olbermann is on USA Network.; 4/27/09, 3:52 PM
BJM said...: Middle of the road? CNN veered from the left lane into the ditch.; 4/27/09, 4:00 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Mariner:

No biggie but I do highly recommend the Trooper's blog for a daily laugh along with a good reality check.; 4/27/09, 4:32 PM
DaLawGiver said...: AL said,

And it's just short of Fox on the ideological spectrum.

If that was true their numbers would be much better. According to the article Fox had 668,000 viewers in April while MSNBC and CNN combined only had 646,000. Apparently people like what they see on the conservative labeled channel. Why is that Alpha? Why do conservative talk radio and TV news shows rule the airwaves?; 4/27/09, 4:45 PM
holdfast said...: During the primaries they were all-Obama, all the time, just less successfully than MSNBC - it was so bad HRC had to go on Fox to get a fair shake (and she said as much).

Fanchors like Roland Martin and Rick Sanchez have their noses so far up Obama's keister that they won't see daylight unless Obama gets a Plexiglas lower intestine.

True, they have Dobbs, who is a populist contrarian, sort of like O'Reilly but that is about it. They do not have total screaming nitwits like Mathews, Olberman and Maddow, but instead have massively biased "straight news" folks, as we saw at the Tea Parties.; 4/27/09, 5:26 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Well, if the liberals think CNN is too right wing, and the conservatives think it's left wing, then it must be middle of the road.

It's funny when left and right try to appropriate the center, as if anyone is fooled.; 4/27/09, 6:02 PM
dick said...: They lost me in the first place when they announced that they had been misreporting the news from Saddam's Iraq for years just so they could have someone there. Good feeling to now most of what they reported about Iraq was faked. Question was what was faked and what was not. Then the head of the News Dept tried to blame the military for targeting the journalists and chose to do this overseas. Really gives me a good feeling that they even realize they are an American network and need to report the truth, which they did not.

Why would anyone pay any attention to them after those two things.; 4/27/09, 6:35 PM
Dale said...: And it's just short of Fox on the ideological spectrum.Thanks for the laugh, AL - you made my day.

Hey, for fun, let's play "Where is the Middle?"

I'll ask the first Question:
Q #1: Where is the political middle on "late-term abortion" restrictions?; 4/27/09, 7:45 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Anderson Cooper:
mmmmmmfmffmfmmmfmfmfmmmfmmmmm

It's hard to talk while you're teabagging.

Susan Roesgen.

Middle of the road:
Do they think we're stupid?; 4/29/09, 7:13 AM