When I think of cable news, the first network that comes to mind is the Cable News Network – CNN.
Apparently though, it is now the fourth network that comes to mind to the American people.
Last week, the October primetime ratings for cable news stations were released and CNN limped to a fourth-place finish. According to an article in the New York Times, CNN was not only beaten by first-run airings of Fox and MSNBC editorial shows, but was even outwatched by a repeat of Keith Olbermann’s 8 p.m. show.
“Countdown.”
This was a first.
What does this say about the American people? What do we want when it comes to TV news?
More and more I realize that many people do not want hard news anymore but, instead, would like their own opinions validated by a talking head. Whether you watch Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity or Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, you’re not getting real news.
What Beck, Hannity, Olbermann and Maddow do is spew their own thoughts about the issues.
This is why CNN is in last place — because they attempt to give its viewers hard news.
It is easy to see the difference between CNN and either Fox or MSNBC, and not just during primetime. Flip to CNN at 8 p.m. and Campbell Brown will be discussing what she believes to be news with “No Bias, No Bull.”
Whereas, if you turn on MSNBC, Olbermann will most likely be ranting about an issue, or constantly interrupting his guest. The same thing happens on the “O’Reilly Factor” with Bill O’Reilly.
CNN is more news-centric than any of its three better-performing competitors. This is why it finished last.
If CNN were a person, it would be the nice guy all the girls just want to be friends with. On the other hand, Fox and MSNBC are CNN friends that the girls want to date. They’re more interesting.
Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente released a statement that said the average American knows the different between opinion-based coverage and news, using the editorial page of a newspaper as his example. But, as I have been told in several journalism courses here at CMU, this is not the case.
The problem is most people don’t know the difference between editorials and news stories. Many people, myself included, like to have their opinions validated by others. This is what primetime “news” does.
The primetime news ratings show that many people not only enjoy the “infotainment” of Fox and MSNBC more than the news-centric CNN, but also just want to be told what they already believe. If you’re a conservative, chances are you watch Fox. If you’re a liberal, you probably watch MSNBC.
But the focus of these networks should be to inform, not entertain.
E-mail the author: 
Mike Hoffman
(Powered by 
libreals. what tools.
GLenn beck IS the news; everything else is just libreal squed.
Cmlife is obvsiouly a liberal paper, OK? I am so sick of this bais, seriously. WE WANT NUETRALITY!
I love how the critics of this article cannot spell to save their lives. Conservatives: way to look intelligent. Good form.
I love how the critics here cannot spell to save their lives. Consevatives: way to look intelligent.
This guys a marxist! Dont u understand that there doing us all a favor by earning ratings? That’s more money for the economy. Straight news isnt entertaining at all.
I would very much agree with the statement that people don’t tend to know the difference between news and editorial anymore.
I myself wrote an anti-Fox News column for the paper I work at this past week and we’ve started to get a steady stream of feedback. Slightly more negative than positive. I fully expected it, and I can tell people don’t know the difference when they attack my day-to-day hard news material that isn’t editorial in their rebuttals to me instead of virtually anything in the column itself. Also, I might add that the socialist slams from people who have no argument is beginning to get old in general.
I’m very amused that Cynic takes the time to criticize others who made typos in their comments and then makes one himself/herself.
My fellow libertarians! Do not give in! Glenn Beck is the light!
RONPAUL2008
I love Glenn Beck. I love his subtle racism. I love how he reminds me of the days of segregation. Man, if there was never any change in this country we would still have slaves. Wouldn’t that help our economy?
I love America.
Bromancer makes some very valid points.
French cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard noted, “we live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning” (79). In the postmodern age, “information produces meaning (a negentropic factor), but it cannot make up for brutal loss of signification in every domain. Despite efforts to reinject message and content, meaning is lost and devoured faster than it can be reinjected” (79). This is crucial to the discussion Mr. Hoffman has touched upon in his article. The problem with our society is that we are barraged by senseless images and advertisements; we cannot possibly filter all of the information that is coming at us all at once. What complicates this is that people often do not realize they are being interpolated into a highly capitalistic society, and we become zomboids.
Mr. Hoffman’s comments are spot on in this age of media paranoia. We have those on the right screaming for neutrality, those on the left screaming against bi-partisan politics, and the news conglomerates are feeding the flame.
From Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism–
In the last six weeks of the 2008 campaign:
Fox News: Tone of McCain coverage – 40% negative, 22% positive
Tone of Obama coverage – 40% negative, 25% positive
CNN: Tone of McCain coverage – 61% negative, 13% positive
Tone of Obama coverage – 39% negative, 36% positive
MSNBC: Tone of McCain coverage – 73% negative, 10% positive
Tone of Obama coverage – 14% negative, 43% positive
Based on these numbers, I would choose Fox News… if I weren’t stuck with awful cable that only carries CNN and Headline News.
(http://www.journalism.org/print/13437)
@ Rachel T:
You don’t get it, do you? The coverage of all of the networks noted here are bias. You would choose FOXnoise? Their coverage is laced with political bias. And it supports subtly racist ideologies and backward ass politics. Not that MSNBC is any better, they do the same on the other end.
Those who are smart, those who want news–not spun stories–listen to the BBC.
Oh oh oh. I once saw Glenn Beck crying only a few minutes before making a comment about how Sarah Palin is a hot grandma. That guy is always crying…
I don’t watch CNN hardly ever but it seems like their website is akin to People magazine and most of their science and technology news is about facebook and twitter.