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CNN Moves in a New Direction

June 7, 2005

CNN announced a number of changes to the network, in an effort to shore up ratings and take back its place as the leader in cable news. CNN will now focus on hard news and analysis, and less on people screaming at each other. So, what's new? Well, first off, Bill Hemmer is leaving the network as of June 17th "to pursue other opportunities." They offered him a nice demotion from co-anchor of American Morning to be the White House correspondent and he said thanks, but no thanks. On the bright side, Miles O'Brien steps up to the plate and will co-host the show with Soledad O'Brien (yes, that makes it the O'Brien-O'Brien hour.) I like Miles. He's science and tech-oriented, which should mesh with Soledad's blandness fairly well.

Wolf Blitzer's in -- in a big way. He anchors all afternoon in something called The Situation Room. Crossfire's grumpy old men Novak, Begala and Cargill will pop in to complain from time to time. Unfortunately, Blitzer inherited the annoying Jack Cafferty from American Morning. John King earlier this year was yanked from the White House to roam around the U.S. looking for breaking news. We haven't seen hide nor hair of him lately. Paula Zahn, Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper all get new producers. And rumor says one of them will be fired before long. I bet it's Aaron Brown, which is really a shame. His 9/11 coverage on the first day of his job was excellent.

But the best news is that they are going to devote an entire hour to international news at noon called Your World Today. That's a bold move. True, it's a low-rated hour, but it's better than the paltry Global Minute.

CNN chief Jon Klein, who took over in November, says the changes are not meant to directly counter Fox News Channel, which continues to trounce onetime ratings leader CNN, now marking its 25th year. "There are many tactical things we could do to try to beat Fox, but we're trying to be ourselves: Roll up our sleeves and report the news, don't talk about it," Klein says.

News analyst Andrew Tyndall says that in making the changes, CNN chose to "counterprogram against Fox rather than compete." But, says Klein: "I don't think of CNN as being up against Fox and MSNBC anymore than we're up against 500 choices on cable, millions of choices in iTunes, 10 million blogs, video games, DVDs. Our competition is every medium." "Everyone talks in talking points these days," he said. "It's not just on cable news. It's radio. It's everywhere. The entire political world is no longer talking ideas, but talking points."

So what's up with the Bill Hemmer thing? The Washington Post reports on Klein's comments, which seem to indicate that Soledad didn't like Hemmer upstaging her.

"What's vital in the morning is chemistry between anchors," Klein told The TV Column. "Watching Miles handle Live From, where he was paired with a smart, vibrant, fun, female anchor" -- Kyra Phillips -- "and seeing how generous he was in sharing the spotlight and supporting and helping the co-anchor to shine; to me he's the perfect complement to Soledad, who is smart, vibrant, fun . . . and the mother of four."

On the decision to move Cafferty, Klein said they were going to surround Blitzer "with a lot of bright bulbs who have something to say and know how to say it." Blitzer will play the part of "sober center of gravity in the midst of a rollicking situation room."

Rollicking? Sober center of gravity? Bright bulbs? Klein is certainly doing things his own way. Still, if he's serious about this whole "more gravitas, less screaming idiocy" thing, kudos to him.

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