CNN Head Takes Shots at Fox News

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Drudge is reporting that Jonathan Klein, head honcho at CNN, is taking some verbal shots at the folks at Fox News:

"CNN President Jonathan Klein implies ratings news leader FOXNEWS is mired in coverage of "meaningless nonsense," claiming: "Fourteen Americans dead, and they have Natalee Holloway on," Klein says. "And they're supposedly America's news channel."

"It's easy and it's brainless," Klein charges in a telephone interview set for publication at the NEW YORK TIMES, explaining why cable news outlets are gravitating to the Aruba story. "They're looking for an ongoing drama" along the lines of the NBC crime show "Law & Order," he said, adding, "Except 'Law & Order' doesn't do the same plot every night."

"There are an awful lot of things you can cover if you don't have people tied up with this meaningless nonsense," Klein says."

As much as I hate to agree with Klein, I think he's on to something here. Fox News is the cable ratings leader, but they have spent an inordinate amount of time on the Holloway case. Greta has virtually gone wall-to-wall with the story, and many of their other shows have devoted a lot of time to it.

Of course, CNN is not completely innocent in this. Just the other day I posted an item on the decision by Bob Costas not to host a Larry King Live show that was going to focus heavily on Holloway. However, according to the Drudge piece, CNN pulled their correspondent out of Aruba in early July and has kept the story out of most of their broadcasts. As evidenced by Klein's comments, they would rather spend their time on the death toll in Iraq. And, the very day this was written, CNN flogged the Pat Robertson story on every program and treated it like a major international incident. 

Of course, no matter how much CNN may complain, Fox is still holding all the ratings cards. I guess it will be up to the viewers to decide whether the emphasis on Holloway is the right programming decision.