Of all people, you would think I’d be the first to notice that a left-wing cable news channel is no longer a left-wing cable news channel. The problem is that when you are in the thick of a thing, you don’t notice gradual changes. For years, for 10 to 12 hours a day, I’ve monitored Headline News (HLN). Over time, again without really noticing, I’ve monitored it less and less. Now I don’t monitor it all because we’ve won — HLN is no longer a cable news channel.
What brought this victory to my attention was “Forensic Files,” a reality crime show I’ve been in love with for more than a decade. Since it’s been a while, I decided to watch the series again, and set my DVR accordingly. In less than three days, by Monday afternoon, I had nearly 60 half-hour episodes — all reruns of a show that went off the air in 2011, all recorded from Headline News (HLN).
Whoa, hey, what’s going on here?
Years ago, in half-hour blocks, HLN relentlessly drove and repeated its mother ship’s propaganda. No more. Headline News identifies itself today as a “national television network that focuses on the must-see, must-share stories of the day.”
With MSNBC and CNN, the ratings just couldn’t sustain yet-another left-wing, 24/7 cable news network covering all the same stories in all the same way. So *poof* HLN is gone, toast, over and done; and now it’s just another reality show channel with around 225,000 to 275,000 total viewers and the bare minimum of 100,000 demo viewers.
The closest HLN comes to news anymore is its punishingly shallow and chirpy six-hour block of “Morning Express with Robin Meade.” A quick look at the “Morning Express” home page tells you just how newsy the show really is.
From noon to 5pm HLN’s “Daily Share” promises to “aggregate the best social media and lifestyle content of the day.” At 6pm we’re treated to a “ethical dilemma series” using a hidden camera. Like cockroaches in a nuclear winter we will never be rid of the execrable Nancy Grace (8pm) and silly Dr. Drew (9pm). The primetime evening ends with a travel show.
Hallelujah! One less left-wing cable news channel driving CNN’s toxic race-baiting, airplane-missing, whale-saving, anti-Republican, anti-Israel narrative rampages.
Even better, when the junk listed above isn’t on, the superb “Forensic Files” is.
One CNN cable news network down, one to go.
And this is already happening. There is less and less news on CNN all the time. CNN’s 9pm weekday hour is filled with various reality shows. 10 pm is a virtual dead zone with a placeholder called CNN Tonight. Almost every week the left-wing network announces yet-another new reality show or documentary series. Today, CNN is 65% MSNBC – 35% the Discovery Channel.
CNN has been able to boost its demo viewers over a sinking and pathetic MSNBC. As far as total viewers, CNN is still losing to MSNBC during primetime.
With competition out there like Fox News and the Internet, congenital liars like MSNBC, CNN and HLN can only last so long. This is a war of inches. We just need to keep exposing the liars until they are pushed into the sea.
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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