CNN Auditions “Opinion” Hosts – Will It Signal A Change?

by Steve Krakauer | 6:43 pm, September 8th, 2009

» 3 comments

smith_9-8 CNN consistently bills themselves as the “news” network, with Fox News on the right and MSNBC on the left.

But could they be looking to shore up their stable of opinion-makers?

FishbowlLA says they are. Reports Tina Dupuy:

They’re auditioning liberal personalities and conservative personalities to co-host one show. A few on the liberal side were [Stephen] A. Smith of ESPN, Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks, Roland Martin who’s already on Campbell Brown‘s show frequently and Errol Louis a CNN contributor. On the conservative side were radio personalities Roe Conn from Chicago, Joe Watkins from Philadelphia and Steve Malzberg from New Jersey. Plus frequent Glenn Beck fill-in Joe Pagliarulo from Texas.

Politico reports “a CNN executive tells POLITICO that there’s no such left-right political debate show planned for the network.” A CNN spokesperson tells Mediaite, “CNN is always looking for new talent.”

So even if there’s not a set show, it does appear CNN is looking to find some commentators, ranging from former ESPN guy Smith (pictured) to a Pagliarulo, a Beck fill-in radio host. It may not signal a shift in tone to more opinion, but it at least means CNN is looking in a direction other than right down the middle.

One thing we don’t expect to see – major changes in prime time. At least not yet. That includes Lou Dobbs‘ hour as well as Campbell Brown‘s.

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CNN, Roland Martin, Stephen A. Smith

libra blue

Come on Steve, let’s be honest, CNN has not been “right down the middle” for years. It is obvious that every anchor (except Dobbs) and most of the regular commentators and reporters on CNN are Obama worshippers. They are only an “Olbermann” away from being MSNBC and Anderson has come close on a few occasions to filling that void.
m

It was only a year ago that CNN had Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck on, with no liberal counterpart shows, yet they were attacked as “liberal” by conservatives. Ridiculous. Seems to me as long as CNN isn’t as biased to the extreme as Fox News, conservatives will keep trashing CNN.
libra blue

@M, Beck was safely “tucked away” on HLN. Except for Dobbs, all of CNN’s programming is “liberal.” The last time CNN had a show that could even be remotely considered as “right down the middle” was “Crossfire” which they cancelled because, from what I understand, there was too much disrespectful yelling and arguing. Now you can catch the same type of despicable behavior on supposedly serious news shows like TSR, Campbell Brown, and AC360.

“Crossfire” seems tame compared to the antics I have seen on some of these programs.