CNN Looks to New Face for Sunday Morning - John King

CNN Looks to New Face for Sunday Morning
By BILL CARTER



The anticipated selection of David Gregory to be the new moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press” may not be the only significant change in the lineup of Sunday morning political discussion shows.

CNN is close to making a change of its own with its Sunday program “Late Edition,” installing John King, its chief national correspondent and longtime White House correspondent, in the host role that has been filled for 10 years by Wolf Blitzer.

CNN executives would not comment on the decision but they did not deny that the Sunday move to Mr. King had been discussed. At the same time, Mr. Blitzer is close to signing an extension of his CNN contract that would continue his role as the network’s chief anchor for breaking news and political coverage, an executive who has been briefed on the plans said.

Because the deal is not final, the people who spoke about CNN’s Sunday plans requested anonymity.

CNN has been considering a change on Sunday for some time, largely because of the extraordinary work load Mr. Blitzer has taken on over the last several years. His Monday through Friday CNN show, “The Situation Room,” fills three hours a day. It has risen to become the leading cable news program during those hours in the 25- to 54-year-old age group, regarded by advertisers as the most important audience for news channels. With the two-hour “Late Edition,” Mr. Blitzer has been on the air 17 hours a week, more than any one else in television news.

And as one CNN executive pointed out, Mr. Blitzer must prepare his Sunday program on Saturdays, so he has effectively been working seven-day weeks since “The Situation Room” was established more than three years ago. Mr. King, whose name also appeared for a time on the list of potential contenders for the “Meet the Press” moderator job, raised his own profile this election season with his work on CNN’s high-tech Electoral College touch-screen wall. The feature became so much a signature of CNN’s election coverage this year that it was satirized first on “Saturday Night Live” and then on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”

Mr. King appeared as himself in the latter sketch, in which he used the “magic wall” to control the world, even the baking section of a Williams-Sonoma store, saying at the end, “It’s good to be king.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/business/media/06cnn.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

I think they are both awful.

I read the other day that John King had been under consideration for MTP also. What the hell.

They will try to destroy his Presidency.

There will be no fawning as they did over slobbering idiot AWOLBush.

The corporate propaganda Wurlitzer must be dismantled.

someone needs to shoot right back at them, "How long have YOU been at CNN, Wolf?" or "How long have YOU been at NBC, Tom?" etc.

Funny - the news "experts" are beating up on Obama for hiring experience rather than bringing in all new faces yet they continue to recycle the same people, promoting from within, and rewarding loyalty and mediocrity without batting an eye. At least Obama is hiring consistently outstanding, experienced people - can't say the same for the networks.