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CBS and CNN Could Be Making News Together
crimeandpunishment writes "More proof of the profound impact cable, the Internet, and other outlets have had on broadcast news organizations. CBS and CNN, who have danced around the idea of a partnership for years, may be ready to move forward. Both news organizations have a lot at stake. Broadcast network news has a gloomy financial outlook, and CNN's ratings need a jump-start."
Yes, because what we need more of in this face, paced online environment is an old media behemoth to bring ingenuity and inventiveness to the scene!
Larry King guest starring on 60 Minutes.
No Thanks. I'll keep my dial set to the hotties and relevant commentators on FoxNews.
Maybe CNN could start reporting actual news instead of relying on their viewers to tweet "interesting" information about the latest celebrity breakups so they can read it out on air.
People would watch. Newstainment with its constant editorializing and presenters that have less acting talent than pro wrestlers make me switch the dial off.
CNN/FOX going out of business due to low ratings is actually GOOD for US Democracy.
Bring back Mac-Neil Lehrer and kill the 24 hour news cycle.
Jay Rosen on saving CNN
I'm not sure that everything he says is a good idea, but he's much more on the right track than CNN is. By combining two bad operations into one, you don't create anything good. All you create is one bad operation. These companies need to revamp their programming from the ground up.
60 Minutes is probably the last thing we have on major networks that we can consider journalism.
CNN is worthless trash and now I'm not a Fox news fan.
PBS's NOW, and Frontline are fantastic.. but they're PBS...
The 3 major news networks are a fucking wasteland of information.
Although I do like Rachael Maddow quite a bit.
Ha! Its coming true.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
How about we start with getting the sensationalists removed from the newsroom, starting with Nancy Gracy.
If they really want to retain viewers, they might... I dunno... try actual journalism and integrity. It worked for Walt.
I piss off bigots.
I suppose now they'll be able to compete with the Al Jazeera-Fox News-Walt Disney cartel. What? I wasn't supposed to say that? I'm sorry Mickey, please don't AAAARGH!
Funny 'cos CBS joined up with ABC and Fox News Channel to create the Network news Service in response to CNN over 20 years ago.
If this goes ahead the USA will have 1 big news service for TV news - maybe some sort of competition commission might block this?
Fabricate.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
This is very heartwarming. It is about time we had some media consolidation. It will surely help remove the bias stemming from the extremely fragmented ownership and production base of the mainstream media of today.........
Real men don't need signitures!!!
When things go wrong, journos are quick to point out that they only report what is happening. That's the academic theory they've been taught, in any case.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
A large percentage of the links off the CNN homepage these days are to the ireport web site, and they don't even differentiate them anymore like they used to. As a general rule, I don't care to see amateur news reporting, and this has been one reason I've used CNN less lately. I'd rather have less news but have it be high quality.
The 3 major news networks are a fucking wasteland of information.
What did you expect from MPAA News?
When things go wrong, journos are quick to point out that they only report what is happening. That's the academic theory they've been taught, in any case.
Journos "make" news in what they choose to report and not to report. For example, which of the MPAA-controlled U.S. TV news organizations has reported on ACTA?
"More proof of the profound impact cable, the Internet, and other outlets have had on broadcast news organizations..."
The fact that their hard news as well as their editorial/opinion shows/segments have also become increasingly-shameless cheerleaders for the Progressive agenda and the Obama administration has also heavily contributed to their viewership losses as ever-larger numbers of people look elsewhere for more objective sources.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
I hope they succeed at making news by merging, because they sure as hell can't report it. Using the words "journalism" and "CNN" in the same sentence has got to be the oxymoron of the year. And CBS isn't that much better any more.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
With their combine number of people watching either, who cares? Evidently not the American public with what ratings they are generating. Maybe Soros will come and buy both networks so he has his propaganda machine in tact.
Do we just pull the plug?
Broadcast "news" consumes some extraordinarily valuable spectrum, a resource fairly tightly limited by the laws of physics. We have historically suffered it to do so because of its perceived value to our democratic society. If, however, it cannot demonstrate that value, there are much better things we could be doing with that scarce and valuable spectrum...
Yes, it is sooo expensive to make news..Who cares, it is the MSM, it is all weaksauce propagande anyway.
They used to have a policy that stated they'd have no celebrity reporters, à la MSNBC. Somewhere along the way that policy changed. I don't know the reasoning behind the change, though. Now we've got Anderson Cooper, Amanpour, Zakaria, etc.
So are they going to call it "CNNBS"?
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
CBS News has a very conservative slant whereas CNN is more neutral. As far as news content goes there is a real conflict.
ABC News also seems to be moving towards the right a bit as well. It's a shame that we have no news service dedicated to deep investigations and aiding the liberal causes. Right now America needs to be digging deep and exposing crooks and crooked companies.
folks:
there was never a fabled era where news media was unbiased or high quality. look up the term "yellow journalism" from a century ago. the spanish american war was started with the "bombing" of the uss maine in havana that was just as much bullshit as iraq's supposed nuclear program. the newspaper "reporting" from a century ago makes fox faux news blatant warmongering agenda look like amateur hour
additionally, there never will be such a thing as unbiased news media. ever. here. in russia. in china. in europe. never, anwyhere
all news media has a bias. GET USED TO IT. accept it, and shut up with the bogus complaints
to criticize news media from a judgment of its bias or not simply means you yourself are hopelessly naive and ignorant about the reality of what news media is or ever could be. furthermore, it presupposes a frightening concept: that, in some magical realm, news media actually somehow could be completely unbiased... which means everyone would trust it implicitly. obviously, complete trust in your news media is far more frightening a concept than the fact news media has some bias
so the solution? get your news FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. read nytimes, bbc, npr, msnbc, cnn, hell even fox news, china daily, and the tehran times:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/
its all propaganda, its all biased, every news source you could ever possibly find. the only error you could ever make is trusting one and only one source of news: then you have failed
in this way, you will train yourself to have a good bullshit meter, and you learn to trust nothing. THAT's the only valid and intellectually coherent approach you could ever possibly have to news media, in this lifetime or any other
so please, shut the fuck up with complaints about quality and bias: such a basis for complaints only reveal your own inadequate grasp of the topic: what news media is, and how it should fit into your life
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
There simply isn't enough real news to be covered by 24 hour TV, magazines, major network night news, and the news on the radio.
I'm not addicted to news or anything, but by listening to NPR on my 20 minute commute to and from work and the random stuff that flows on the internet (I don't visit the dedicated news sites), I'm as aware of the news as anyone.
Take for example the Toyota gas pedal thing. It was overplayed until I was sick of it, and then it just stopped. Was there a resolution? Or did it just stop being news as quickly as it became news?
That's the problem. CNN cares about ratings. That means they care about the short term at the expense of their reputation as a viable news organization.
Here's a quick fact for all of you TV executives: YOUR RATINGS ARE GOING DOWN BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE MORE OPTIONS. Quit trying to build this 'one size fits all morons' news channel and start actually reporting news. Hollywood gossip belongs on the Entertainment channel. Quick one-liners and talking heads belong on the Commentary channel. Crazy banners trying to get me all worked up over the world's dumbest terrorist (ya.. that guy from Pakistan recently) belong on the Fear channel. Instead, CNN includes all these things and then calls it the News channel. Seriously? CNN, right now, you are stupider than your audience. You target an audience of stupid people with even stupider content. Even stupid people want to get smarter.
Right now, if you watched CNN all day 24/7, you would not know who your lawmakers are, you would not know which countries are where or what their political system is, understand any non-simplistic political or social situations, understand social and market changes or direction, hear more than a single sentence from a single person at a time without her being interrupted, hear about any real dirt or corruption involved with any affiliated corporation, or understand the real 'world situation.' So, it's entertainment - not news.
And, you talking head assholes (that's pretty much every CNN reporter except Jack Cafferty), IT'S NOT YOUR FUCKING JOB TO SET THE AGENDA FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Quit trying to tell people how to think. Quit identifying any political candidates as 'non-viable' or 'a longshot' or 'fringe' before you talk about them without letting people decide for themselves. Quit having opinions on everything. Quit being condescending to less educated people trying to make a difference in less affluent areas. Quit fabricating shit out of nothing - If there was a device that people thought was a bomb, but was determined not to be a bomb, don't report that it was a bomb! Quit talking only about buzzword political issues like abortion, gun control, and prayer in schools - like they are the only political problems facing the US. Quit wasting our time.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
0+0 does not equal one (viewer). These two media outlets need to team up with something successful in order to survive. Just look how XM/Sirius has done since their merger.
Hey! who is the wise guy who put !newsfornerds as a tag for this story?...
Maybe it is a sign of the times when two historically big news organizations coming together is no longer nerdy enough for people to watch or care about.....or discuss..
That psychic at Lisa's Wedding wasn't far off! This partnership means we're halfway towards CNNBCBS (A Division of ABC).
If you really want to know what is going on in the US the best way is to login to BBC news website or get a subscription to BBCAmerican and watch your news there. ITN News is pretty good too and they have that hot Indian chic who is easy on the eyes.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
I would love to see the Pangea Report with Howard Handupme, or Edward R Hero.
Maybe even break between programming with a Muppet News Flash.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
They're eating each other!
When Ron Paul is on cable news networks, and starts talking about the 1953 Coup de tat, he is cut off immediately and they break to commercial. Both Fox and CNN are guilty of this. I don't believe that we have Freedom of the Press in this country for that reason and many others. We have New York Times reporters thrown in jail for leaking information that can hurt the administration.
We need the country to wake their brain dead asses up and do a little bit of research rather than just following the talking heads of CNN and Fox. I think the 1953 Coup de tat has a little bit more historical significance than Britney Spears ass in a windshield. Why do they always seem to have time for the latter? Seems fishy to me.
Let's see...
CBS News is in the ratings tank, despite paying buckets of money to people like Katie Couric, one of the worst "news reporters" in television history. No one is watching there.
CNN's prime-time news show ratings are routinely beaten by cable infomercials shown at three in the morning. Nothing there either.
So, they're going to merge and hope this raises ratings?
What could possibly go wrong?
Joe Dougherty, Florida, USA
The words I thought I brought, I left behind. So, never mind.
Both had a point in time when their names meant something good, now
"It's a Sony" and "This is CNN" only server as warning labels.
And a merger? I'm sure it'll work out as well as MSNBC has, if you're going for
two single digit viewer-ships, one might actually make it to double digits.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
What do movies have to do with the News?
TV news tends to bury stories about legislation that helps the movie studios more than it helps the end users. Think back to 1998: did any channel show a balanced report on the Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act? And how many channels have run a story about ACTA?
I work in the TV news industry and know quite a few people at CNN. If you ask any of them what their ratings problem is all about, Anderson Cooper's name inevitably comes up. He's mostly referred to as "Anderson Pooper." Folks are mystified as to why he continues to be their prime time anchor when he continuously talks in the ratings.
All of these news organizations need to remove the political slant from the reporting. Every since CNN turned into a liberal rag I quit watching it.
Got Code?
Modded -1, overrated so that no adjective appears next to my comment's score, in an attempt to be sneaky — some people check out negative moderations to see who is doing what, after all. How much do you get for that line of work? I note that I've picked up another couple of Overrated mods elsewhere on comments which otherwise have overwhelmingly positive moderation. Stop following me around, douche.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Copyright legislation is important to anyone who wants to make fair use of a copyrighted work. This includes time- and place-shifting, de minimis use in another work, use in parody or other criticism of a work, etc. And this includes far more than geeks.
oops typo...
I was not now, not ever.. a fox news fan :)
Who watches CBS news? I don't know a sole who does.
CNN has more to gain from this than CBS. I've completely stopped watching CNN because it's become nothing more than a 24hr version of Entertainment Tonight, with its constant coverage of goings-on in the celebrity world. Maybe a partnership with CBS will inject some serious journalism once more.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
At least someone gets that all main stream news is made up.