CNN's rodeo clown

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/7350

CNN's rodeo clown
by Eric Boehlert | May 9 2007

"So you can feast on your stories but it won't stop the bleeding
When the truth is found the houses surely fall down
There's blood on their mouths of all lies and liars
The bloody red eyes of the rodeo clown"
--John Mellencamp, "Rodeo Clown"

The bad news last week was that Glenn Beck, the right-wing radio talker and self-described "rodeo clown" who broadcasts nightly on CNN Headline News, hosted a world-is-flat special about the "myths" surrounding global warming. In it, Beck rounded up the usual ban of discredited, oil industry-friendly "experts" who announced that the looming atmospheric crisis is overblown, and that far from being a consensus, serious scientists still disagree on the matter.

The good news was that Beck's special, "Exposed: Climate of Fear," was a commercial flop, finishing dead last in total viewers among CNN, Headline News, Fox News, and MSNBC programs that night. The weak showing simply highlighted Beck's recent, albeit little-discussed, ratings woes. Just months after being hyped as the fastest-growing prime-time program in cable news, Glenn Beck has become arguably the most stagnant prime-time program in cable news.

For CNN, the repercussions of the backslide are immense and go far beyond the advertising dollars and cents involved.

That's because whereas CNN last year traded away its good name in exchange for debuting Beck's factually challenged and hateful brand of broadcasting, at least CNN execs were getting a ratings boost out of the Faustian bargain. Today, Beck's still making a mockery out of CNN's reputation on a daily basis, as he disparages liberals, gays, Democrats, blacks, immigrants, and Muslims at will. But in return, CNN's now stuck with a Beck program that's trapped in neutral and shows signs of sliding into reverse.

Well played, CNN.

more...

actual human beings. :dem:

Why in good-business's name would CNN give Beck a show? His brand of lunacy is not a big seller, they are up against the big-daddy of lunatic networks which is FOX, Beck is such a fool that he is bound to get in trouble with the public at some time, and CNN doesn't need to sully its name for any minor ratings such a loon might bring.

If anything, they need to be adding more left of center talkers on there. THAT is where the country is and has been for the past year. What were they thinking?

and has proved that time and again. What could CNN be gaining by hosting him?

They are living in a 2002 world where everything pro-Bush and anti-Dem was fashionable.

Keep up, CNN!