CNN Replaces the Head of U.S. Operation

[DuctapeFatwa]

CNN replaced the head of its U.S. news operations on Monday and changed its structure to make it more nimble, as the first 24-hour news network seeks to regain the lead it lost to the upstart Fox News Channel.

Teya Ryan resigned as executive vice president and general manager of CNN-U.S., the network's parent AOL Time Warner Inc.AOL.N said on Monday, and will be replaced by Princell Hair, a television news executive at Viacom Inc...

Analysts were perplexed over Walton's choice, and questioned Hair's news pedigree and ability to lift one of the world's most prominent news organization out of its No. 2 status. "Princell's selection is an interesting one, given that all his background is in local television news," said Jack Myers, of the Myers Report.

Ryan, who was responsible for day-to-day news operation including all aspects of programming, resigned to "pursue opportunities outside the CNN organization."In explaining her departure, Walton said the decision was reached amicably and said they both recognized her strengths were in production, not managing the operations.

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=3447824

[KoKo]

1. Princell Hair??? That's someone's real name??? I gotta Google that one..

otherwise I'm glad to see Ryan gone. I remember some stories about her that probably are why CNN has gone downhill in the last few years......But "Princell Hair?" This person must be good to have survived a name like that !

[Newsjock]

2. This change at CNN is bad for us

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/showcase/chi-0309160193sep16.story

... Hair has a controversial history in Chicago. He was the news director of Channel 5 in 1997, when general manager Lyle Banks and news vice president Joel Cheatwood hired Jerry Springer as a news commentator for the station's 10 p.m. newscast. The inclusion of Springer, host of a trash-talk daytime show, in a local newscast was seen by many as a crass grab for ratings.

Anchors Carol Marin and Ron Magers resigned in protest, and ratings for the late news declined by 20 percent.

Hair declined to comment on his role in the Springer incident, citing a non-disclosure agreement he signed when he left NBC ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16490-2003Sep15.html

... The Reporters Who Cover Television seemed a bit puzzled by the choice of Hair to replace Ryan, who'd been rumored to be out for weeks.

One wondered why Walton chose anyone with a background in local news, where "if it bleeds it leads"; another asked why Walton thought Hair was "the right guy," given that Viacom's stations are "not known for being a tremendous success in ratings from the standpoint of their news."

Local news actually "matches up to CNN" in a couple of key areas, Walton responded.

"One is, in local news you're managing high-end talent. Another is competing in a marketplace for ad dollars and eyeballs regularly and aggressively. Another is, your day starts very early in the morning" and keeps right on going through a noon newscast, a 5 p.m. newscast, a 6 p.m. newscast and an 11 p.m. newscast ...

http://www.sunspot.net/features/lifestyle/bal-to.tvradio17sep17,0,2197518.column?coll=bal-pe-today

... In talking with reporters on Monday, Hair touted his hard news bona fides: "My background is local news, but I'm a journalist at heart."

Note the instructive "but" in that phrasing. It suggests his recognition that local news and journalism can prove to be entirely unrelated fields.

Hair is a protege of former CBS executive Joel Cheatwood, who had repeatedly hired him at local stations and more recently at the network itself. Cheatwood is often characterized within the business for his devotion to sensationalism and ratings stunts - anything to attract viewers.

... Hair's most memorable decision involved a live car chase captured by a WBAL-TV cameraman hovering above Northwest Baltimore in a helicopter. The station devoted the end of a 5:30 p.m. newscast on a gusty afternoon in February 2001 to live footage of a car speeding away from police. The hyperbolically narrated tale stretched, still live, into the 6 p.m. program, and was recounted at length on WBAL's 11 p.m. news ...

[Carmerian]

3. This certainly looks bad

I had hopes that they were intending to go back to journalistic integrity. I guess not.

[KoKo]

7. NewsJock, ya beat me to it. I Googled and found what you did. Not Good..

Amusing because Cheatwood and Hair sound like names out of Dickens Stories.....and not the good characters but the more malevolent ones.

WhyWalton insists on going after Faux's audience is beyond me. They lost a huge audience of folks like me when they turned......I don't watch Faux and have just about given up on MSNBC.

As they fight for smaller pieces of the RW Pie....they drive their companies into ruin. I shake my head....thinking that the world has gone crazy with such poor business practices.......

[ozymandius]

8. This will not pass at CNN.

Hair's appointment could not turn CNN into a Fox local station clone.

The monkeys that worked for Taya Ryan would have done something like this if they had been allowed. As the producers who were displaced by Ryan's regime are moved back into their old positions, the tone of CNN will revert to CNN as it was under Time-Warner before AOL: stodgy overall with some panache supplied by the AOL influence.

Remember: the President of CNN serves at the pleasure of the company heads in New York. They want a boost in ratings numbers. They will not tolerate the most prominent cable news channel to be sullied with a carbon copy remake of some local action news crap.

[Enraged_Ape]

4. Well, since the Aryan Nations lost their TV show...

I guess CNN thinks there's an untapped market that Faux isn't reaching.

[XNASA]

5. Everyday, will be a "Bad Hair Day" at CNN.

That's my prediction.

[tom_paine]

6. Bushevik Plant, pehaps a Mockingbird

They are, like the Nazis in 1936, EVERYWHERE now.

Like the Afrikaner Broederbund, they have infiltrated media outlets other than their own Party-Loyal Sub-Media.

AP and CNN, naturally are among the highest priority Bushevik Targets.

And both are by now extremely compromised with our own Confederate Broederbunders.

[KoKo]

9. Well, Hair did graduate from a College in Florida...maybe friends with Jeb

I didn't get his age from the article.....but would seem to me they could have found someone with much more staature and experience than this guy.