Following last week’s cable news bloodbath featuring the replacement of network chiefs at both CNN and MSNBC, I had to think, “What will MSNBC and CNN be doing differently today, effectively the first day of the rest of their newsy lives?”
Well sir, CNN has a boatload of change in the offing. Next week is the sort-of-anticipated debut of Parker Spitzer, CNN’s almost original idea of pairing a liberal and a conservative together in prime time. And then in January, once Larry King finishes cleaning out his locker, we can’t wait to see what will happen when Piers Morgan steps into Larry’s time slot.
Not to be outdone, MSNBC has started the week with its finger pressed firmly on the pulse of America. At 10 p.m. eastern tonight we will be treated to “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell.”
Vice President Joe Biden (the man who believes he is second in the line of Presidential succession) and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be part of the inaugural program that is replacing a replay of Keith Olbermann’s ratings-challenged show. Vegas is posting better than 3-1 odds on Keith naming O’Donnell as tonight’s Worst Person in The World.
But wait, there’s more! MSNBC must know there’s a battle for last place in the news ratings so they are force-feeding any remaining viewers a mid-day, mini-series on the cutting edge topic of education. Really? Surrendering an entire hour of mid-afternoon programming to suck up to the White House? Does MSNBC think there is nothing of importance happening in the country or around the world? I guess not.
So once-proud peacock network’s minor league channel kicked off “Education Nation,” the first of three days of special programming focused on education (duh), but really was just an infomercial for the administration’s policies as well as Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s pitch to the youth to join the teaching profession.
Complete with an amiable host (Tom Brokaw) tossing softball questions to Duncan, a studio audience that claps on cue, and pre-selected questions from audience members (more than one of these folks were oddly familiar to the Secretary) this propaganda special was about as thinly veiled as a 1930s burlesque show.
Nora O’Donnell, Michelle Kosinski, and Devin Skillian hosted remote segments from colleges around the country… remotes populated with young, mostly ethnic students who were lined up to ask questions of the Secretary. (Translation, tee it up so Duncan can hammer home the administration’s plans.)
After being asked a question (from yet another familiar face previously known to Mr. Duncan) – a question about the safety of students getting back and forth to schools — the Secretary quickly transitioned to a set of ideals that sounded frighteningly closer to what one might hear from the Dear Leader in North Korea. Duncan stated that the U.S. government should not just be responsible to teach children, but also that, “children have to be fed, if children are hungry, they can’t learn, we have to feed children, if they can’t see the blackboard we have to give them eye glasses, we have to make sure they are physically, emotionally and socially safe.”
I appreciate the concerns that the Education Secretary has for the children, but when did parents cede all control of their children to the government?
So there you have it, big changes coming to both CNN and MSNBC. I hate to be a naysayer, but I fear that all of these changes will be about as successful as the Democrats Recovery Summer.
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