As Its MSNBC Ally Collapses, Politico Panders to CNN

At the Politico-owned Capital New York,  Alex Weprin published a syrupy puff-profile of CNN’s Erin Burnett. Out of options and ideas, CNN chief Jeff Zucker just renewed Burnett’s contract. Naturally, the Politico piece goes to extreme lengths not to point to the fact that Burnett is failing upward (something only possible for left-wingers in the business of media — see: Couric, Katie).

During the month of July, which was a big news month, CNN lost -23% of its total viewers and -32% of demo viewers. In all of cable news, Burnett’s primetime show ranked 26th in total viewers and 20th in the 25-54 demo. Other than a Anderson Cooper repeat, in total July viewers, Burnett was one of the worst (maybe THE worst) primetime performers in cable news. In the demo, Burnett lost to Fox News’ “Red Eye,” which airs at 3 a.m.

The whole world knows that reruns of “Forensic Files” or “Lockup: DesMoines” would perform better than Burnett at 7 p.m.

Politico, though, has its own mercenary reasons for pretending Burnett is an important star.

There’s no question Politico would love to expand its television presence to CNN. Therefore it makes perfect sense for Politico to attempt to suck up to CNN, even if it means embarrassing itself with this kind of pandering.

The only cable news network doing worse than CNN is MSNBC; and as of now, Politico is locked at the hip with hip with MSNBC. Spot checks of Politico over the years  reveal the left-wing outlet (that poses as objective) frequently positions it front page to appeal to the shrill leftism of MSNBC — which translates into frequent TV appearances. But Politico knows a sinking ship when it sees one.

Fox News caught on to Politico’s biased corruption years ago. That makes CNN the only lifeboat around. The only problem with that strategy is that CNN is sinking only a little slower than MSNBC. 

 John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC