ENTERTAINMENT
By David Zurawik and The Baltimore Sun | January 30, 2013
Talk about hitting the floor running, Jeff Zucker looks to have arrived at CNN this month in a flat-out sprint. It's hard not to be impressed by what he's already done: Started to make CNN suddenly seem a couple of decades younger. It's like watching an aggressive and skilled general manager rebuild a baseball team from the bottom up -- first adding younger but already tested major-league talent to the roster while releasing some one-time big names that were no longer productive.
ENTERTAINMENT
By David Zurawik and The Baltimore Sun | October 30, 2012
A day's worth of some excellent storm coverage by CNN was all but shredded during the Piers Morgan show Monday night when meteorologist Chad Myers reported that the New York Stock Exchange was under three feet of water and the hip-shooting host ran wild with the report that turned out to be false. What a shame for all those CNN correspondents in places like Rehoboth Beach, Ocean City and Asbury Park who spent the day and night standing in cold ocean water and rain doing such a fine job of reporting the story.
ENTERTAINMENT
By David Zurawik and The Baltimore Sun | July 19, 2012
I know some of my more parochial colleagues can't get past the troubles CNN continues to have in its prime-time American operation. And I am right up there in being dismayed by some of the moves management has made with Eliot Spitzer, Kathleen Parker, Erin Burnett and Piers Morgan. But facts are facts, and CNN has a different business model than anybody else in the cable news business because of its overwhelming international infrastructure and reach. And Thursday it got some more good news on that front with an audience measurement survey that shows its dominance among news channels in Africa.
ENTERTAINMENT
By David Zurawik and The Baltimore Sun | June 13, 2012
UPDATED with copy of CNN memo and confirmation of cancellation ... John King's nightly show on CNN has been cancelled. King, the star of political reporting during the 2008 presidential campaign, will continue with the channel as its "lead campaign correspodent," according to an internal memo from CNN President Ken Jautz. King was chief national correspondent. Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room," which now runs two hours, will be expanded to three hours, 4 to 7 p.m. weekdays.
ENTERTAINMENT
By David Zurawik and The Baltimore Sun | June 6, 2012
UPDATES WITH LINK TO RESPONSE POST BY GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: After watching coverage of the Wisconsin recall, I am convinced more than ever that it's time for a major press gut check. We have been in real trouble for a long time with cable TV news, but we truly have reached a new low of partisanship at MSNBC and Fox News -- and confusion at CNN. It's the confusion part at CNN that has me truly worried these days. Monday night after watching cable TV, I wrote about being "dismayed" by the polarized place that MSNBC and Fox News had come to. Scott Walker, the Republican governor, wouldn't talk to MSNBC, and Tom Barrett, the Democratic challenger, wouldn't come on Fox. Who could blame them?
ENTERTAINMENT
By David Zurawik and The Baltimore Sun | November 2, 2011
This year, I gave up reporting cable news ratings every month. The numbers and spin tell us about the horse race to some extent. But what they mainly do is distract us from the important moral and cultural stories of the way these channels are warping our view of the world with their ideological and show biz priorities rather than any genuine commitment to news and information. But there are ratings, and then, there are ratings. And the October numbers that just came out offer a sobering snapshot of just how badly CNN's misadventures in programming are going -- even as they cheapen their news brand identity to try and find larger audiences.