video Have you ever wondered what Anderson Cooper or Candy Crowley would look like if they were neanderthals? Of course you have - I mean, who hasn't? Thankfully, the smart producers at CNN have given their viewing audience what they want - a realistic portrayal of CNN talent done up as though they were early cavemen. Finally! The amazing and relevant video is below. Also, in other CNN related news, prime time ratings continue to slump. (more...)

Politico's Michael Calderone pulls back the curtain on some internal tension at CNN over the direction of the network. Besides a meeting that took place at the D.C. bureau, there are also concerns at the network about the need for John King's upcoming 7pmET show to begin the process of turning the nighttime ratings around. (more...)

“A couple months ago I thought I had the perfect line to describe Sanjay. I was going to call him the Tiger Woods of TV doctors. But I'm going to stay away from that right now.”

When he answered Mediaite’s phone call last Friday, Latino activist Roberto Lovato was smiling somewhere in Greenville, North Carolina, listening to his favorite song, “Viva la Música” by Ray Barretto, while getting ready to go to a party – one of the many parties he would attend in the next days celebrating the resignation of Lou Dobbs. Lovato is the co-founder of Presente.org, a grassroots-meets-online organization for the advancement of Latinos, responsible for Basta Dobbs, the most notorious of the Latino grassroots organizations that demanded the firing of the anchor. The activists accused Dobbs of fueling anti-immigrant extremism, and CNN of double standard for profiting from hatred against Latinos while courting them with Latino talent and Latino-oriented programming. (more...)

What a relief to get the odious Lou Dobbs out of the news business, at least for a while. Of all the degraders of the trade, he has been, well, to borrow the title from Keith Olbermann, the worst. Unlike the other, often inept, purveyors of political hysteria, he possessed the gravitas, voice of authority, expression of earnest concern, that could convey conviction to the point of persuasion to the uninformed, all the while providing emotional reassurance to his Know-Nothing core. Birthers. Immigrants as conveyors of leprosy. Xenophobia. Much more damaging to the lingering public regard for the news business than the obvious chicanery and food-fights among his putative competitors. (more...)

Shortly after Lou Dobbs announced his decision to leave CNN, he received his first going-away present: a "Worst Person in the World" bronze medal, courtesy of Keith Olbermann. (more...)

With CNN's ratings dropping, and its sister network HLN reaching historic heights, the spin when it comes to defending the network takes on extra significance. For CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein, it sounds like the path relates to changing the topic from ratings to 'journalism.' Will it work? (more...)

Buried in Brian Stelter's story about the battle between Fox News and the Obama Administration is a little nugget: Last month, Lou Dobbs met with Roger Ailes. (more...)

Where were you a year ago today? If you are a political journalist — or media hanger-on — chances are you were living out of a suitcase at the 2008 Presidential Conventions, with the Dems nominating Barack Obama in Denver and the GOP nominating John McCain in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Remember those heady days? (more...)

VIDEO At this point it's a bit of a lose-lose situation for CNN where Lou Dobbs is concerned. Regardless of what they do there is just no way to look good. To wit: HuffPo is reporting that CNN is refusing to air the anti-Dobbs commercials the website put together to protest Dobbs' Obama-Birther coverage (below). (more...)

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The controversy surrounding CNN host Lou Dobbs' discussion of the current "birther" theory -- that President Obama has no documented U.S. birth certificate and is his presidency is illegitimate -- has not increased his ratings. What it has done is vastly increased the media attention towards the CNN host -- and not much of it has been positive. So much for CNN president Jon Klein saying that this "story was dead." (more...)

VIDEO Well, it looks like Lou Dobbs won't be having any more "birther" debates on his CNN show. CNN President Jon Klein put out a memo last night to Lou Dobbs staffers in which he declares, "It seems this story is dead." Here's his note, courtesy of TVNewser. (more...)

VIDEO CNN's Campbell Brown was interviewed on Julie Menin's Webcast, and touched on her usual points concerning CNN's prime time journalism cred as compared to the opinion hosts on the competitors. After seeing the HuffPost headline, Greta Van Susteren of FNC decided to weigh in and counter Brown. (more...)

HLN announced Joy Behar will have her own program, replacing the re-airing of Lou Dobbs at 9 PM. Headline News' evening lineup now consists of relative murderer's row Jane Velez-Mitchell, Nancy Grace, and now the co-host of the View. HLN Head Ken Jautz seems to continue to make decisions that  are smart and successful, particularly compared to his counterpart at CNN Jon Klein. (more...)