CNN’s Piers Morgan Aims to ‘Kick Butt’ Against Murdoch

[Turborama]

Source: Bloomberg

Piers Morgan, the former tabloid editor who succeeds CNN talk-show host Larry King this month, enjoyed competing with News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch and hopes to “kick his butt” going up against cable leader Fox News.

“To be in this new jungle you have to make noise and I intend to make noise,” Morgan, 45, said today at a meeting of television critics in Pasadena, Calif. “No question that CNN is getting its butt kicked in prime time by Fox and MSNBC, and I intend to turn that around. I enjoyed competing with Rupert Murdoch before and I hope to kick his butt.”

Morgan takes over on Jan. 17. His arrival comes after “Larry King Live,” the dominant prime-time cable news program in the 1990s, fell behind Bill O’Reilly of Fox News and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. In 2010, King averaged 671,000 viewers for Time Warner Inc.-owned CNN, according to Nielsen Co. data, down 38 percent from 2009’s 1.1 million and from 1.6 million in 1998.

“Morgan may reverse some of the audience erosion that Larry King had last season,” Brad Adgate, senior vice president of the advertising company Horizon Media, said in an interview. “The cable landscape has become so competitive of late and every year it gets harder and harder to get any traction.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-06/cnn-s-piers-morgan-aims-to-kick-butt-against-murdoch-fox-news.html

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Much as I don't like Morgan, I hope he succeeds kicking Murdoch's butt.

[itsrobert]

1. He's an ass

hole. MSNBC for me.

[Turborama]

3. It's all about drawing the disinformed viewers away from Faux

I don't mind if they go to MSNBC or CNN. Hopefully Faux' time in the sun is over and both will 'kick Murdoch's butt'.

[Little Star]

4. Good point!

[RamboLiberal]

8. +1 on that

And that it is Hannity makes it even sweeter.

[Blue Owl]

2. Ooooooh -- shitty network duels!

:boring:

[tularetom]

5. IMO CNN is worse than Fox

Fox doesn't really make any pretense of fairness, even their dumbass viewers know the old "fair 'n' balanced wink wink nudge nudge" canard is just bullshit.

CNN OTOH makes a big fuckin deal out of its professionalism, objectivity and neutrality yet they are the first ones to fall in line for right wing code words and stories. And the competence of their talking heads is just a joke.



Who can forget Wolf Blitzer's "performance" on celebrity Jeopardy?

[Turborama]

6. Faux is full of deliberate lies and disinformation fed to them by Republican 'think tanks'

That alone makes them worse than CNN. But that's not all. Faux News paid an instrumental part in the genesis if the "Tea Party". Also, there is no equivalent Media Matters for CNN.

I live abroad and receive the genuinely, out of necessity, objective CNN International, so I don't know what CNN in the States is like these days, apart from a few hours of the prime-time stuff (Blitzer, Cooper and now Morgan). IMO they should Broadcast both CNN International and CNN USA in the States. It's what Ted Turner would be doing if he was still there. Americans need some more news from the rest of the world which isn't just about wars and natural disasters.

We are tortured by our satellite provider with unfiltered Faux News 24/7, though, so I know exactly what they are all about.

[zalinda]

7. Go, Piers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found a new respect for him after seeing him on the first celebrity edition of The Apprentice. He kicked ASS. And, yes, he won. One of the competitors thought that she could psyche him out, she cut too close, and he wiped the floor with her. He can be very charming, but you don't want to get on his bad side.

zalinda