Anderson Cooper's Rating Woes "Most Troubling" To CNN Staffers: Politico

Politico:

It's Cooper's ratings that are the most troubling, say staffers, given the resources and heavy promotion for his show, and persona. For years, Klein has talked up Cooper, once famously dubbing him "the anti-anchor" and, in the aftermath of Katrina, as "a reporter [who's] got that magical something.

But that magic may be wearing off.

Read the whole story: Politico

Comments

[jazzybo]

This guy is just plain boring! CNN sucks.

[dthom403]

What's most annoying about Cooper is that goofy, squinted eyed dead stare, where he asks an anti-obama question, and with a combination of dumbfoundedness and pompousness, pretends as if the question that's asked couldn't be answered by any astute 12 yr old--the right wing hack.

[mexamerican]

cnn stinks.

[johnqsittinzen]

It's those little gaspy gulps of air he makes between every phrase; as soon as you become aware of them, he becomes impossible to watch w/out a palpable and escalating sense of anxiety, like all the oxygen is being steadily sucked out of the room.

[zakwouldhave]

He provides a service and does it well......but boring. I like that he went after Warren Jeffs. Everything he does seem a bit shallow lately. Hurricaine season is upon us so maybe there is hope.

[toocoldout]

I can't stand CNN because there are too many pretaped segments that air over & over. I enjoy good conversation. If Cooper's show was more like Larry King's (all conversation & no preproduced clips) I would watch.

[Zhonni]

CNN's and MSNBC's ratings should improve slightly. Exams are over. I would also like to know if their ratings correlate with when school(college specifically) is in session.

[trinidadgirl]

I watched CNN a lot during the eleection, but I have stopped since January when they started tearing everything Obama apart and foisting all these negative republican voices on us. Sorry, no can do CNN anymore. Too predictable and they have lost their sting!
CNN needs a major overhaul....they all need to go on a retreat to upgrade and uplift.
Anderson Cooper never seems to know what is going on. he always has a frown on his brow and seems to ask others questions he should be telling us,the viewers.
I tune in to Ed, Keith and Rachel though! ( Keith is my favourite though..he has me in fits of laughter every night!

[nana4g]

same here. I think they have tried too hard to appeal to the younger crowd, losing a lot of the professional gravitas they had, and their credibility. They also need to overhaul their "best political team" panel and throw out Alex Castellanos. Agree, they started ripping Obama apart from January forward; my sentiments exactly that they look for every rightwing nut they can find to provide "equal time" for them to spread nonsense and then CNN muses over what they had to say as if it were credible.

[Girl28]

I agree completely.

[escribacat]

Anderson Cooper is blah. They should never have dumped Aaron Brown -- he was much better.

[VictoriaP]

Aaron Brown was the best and that is when I pretty much stopped being a regular viewer,especially since they tried forever and a day to shove carol iovana down our throats. ewww.

[troika]

I too liked Aaron Brown. Unpretentious. The current crop of CNN reporters (if at all one could call that) should be given 6 months' notice to look for jobs elsewhere. Also the phrase "best political team" should be dismantled FORTHWITH because all we have there is a bunch of guys sitting and yapping and wasting our time and money. There is no true political analysis for there is not a single person who is qualified to do that. To me they look like a bunch of high school seniors sitting around a table and weighing the pros and cons of an issue. Folks like Castallenos, Bernstein, Toobin and the likes should be banished from CNN. CNN please, purge the current lot and bring fresh qualified and REAL journalists if you want your ratings to go up. Frankly I am tired of these faces and also am sure there are lots of folks who would agree with me on this.

[RButler]

"Sincerity is very important in the news business. If you can fake that you've got it made" -Anderson Cooper.

He just drips with concern over every story. I can't, I won't watch him. He actually seems like he's a nice guy but his show is unwatchable because of him. Weird. My favorite on CNN is Kitty Pilgrim on Lou Dobbs show. Intelligent, unbiased, professional and beautiful. I love her. She leads the most thoughtful and composed panel discussions on TV yet she seems to be under the radar. I guess cause she's not a flamboyant hothead like Sanchez, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly,, Shepherd Smith and many others. Wolf Blitzer always sounds like he's straining to take a dump when he's talking. Again unwatchable. I also like Dan Kloefler on before Morning Joe on MSNBC. He just reports the news without adding a lot of stuff that others can't help but doing. He has a light touch, not significant but not a good off either. Another professional.

[Ranta]

MSNBC is scheduled to go high definition June 29th. I can't wait. They are starting to get more daytime programming. I think they need to go total news and get rid of the infomercials and prison filler programs.

[cjk002]

I've never seen an infomercial on MSNBC, maybe you're thinking CNBC.

As horrible as they are, those prison specials and the "To catch a Predator" series wins the weekend ratings for them, so I doubt that they'll go away anytime soon.

[InfinteShibumi]

True, but sometimes those Rosetta Stone language ads seem to go on forever...

[nana4g]

me, too.

[nana4g]

I like David Schuster on MSNBC. That guy never lets ANYone get buy with ANYthing. He calls them out, quickly, directly, with humor. He reports straight and direct; he is very good. Sometimes, when in the presence of a bald face lie, he just breaks out in laughter at the person.

[troika]

nana4g, I hate to disagree with you on this one. This guy has no journalistic grace at all. He rather comes across as a very condescending so and so. Infact during the democratic presidential campaign, when then Sen. Clinton sent her daughter to talk on behalf of her at various gatherings, THIS GUY said and I quote "The Clintons are pimping their daughter Chelsea" which I thought was outrageous. For this MSNBC suspended him for two weeks which was just a slap on the wrist. If I had the authority at MSNBC, I would have fired him. For me nothing is likable about him.

[Willow207]

And CNN axed DL Hughley!! That guy was so awesome, and so extremely different from the other mealy mouth nothing to say people on CNN..... DL brought some life and energy to CNN, more than the dying corpse could handle!

[thecanadian]

Like Blitzer the Gossip Monger. He should go - Repug. ha.te monger. Rick Sanch and Ali Vel. are tops though.

[Willow207]

DL was not about 'gossip' as you state. His format was to introduce a topic to his guest and let the topic go from there. One of the great things was how DL allowed a fair amount of time for the guest to become engaged and carry forward with the conversation. You don't see Blitzer doing that because his personal bias won't allow it, he doesn't work from the premise of "exchange" of ideas because any idea contrary to Blitzer would be shot down.

Yea Rick has a very interesting format with the use of Twitter and Facebook, makes his topic 'real' to his audience. He allows the audience to talk to him, not him doing all of the talking--great concept!

[BBCup]

It might be because he's not an opinionated, hate-spewing, sensationalistic fear monger. Sadly, we live in a tabloid society. People may say they despise the Limbaughs, Hannities, and Olbermans of this world, but they love to watch them just to see what kind of vitriol they're spewing.

Cable news, especially FOX, has become the 'National Enquirer' of television.... or more like 'Weekly World News.'

[troika]

That is because BILLO hosted the show Inside Edition with Maureen O'Boyle which was a tabloid show before coming onto FOX NOISE CHANNEL. Hence what would you expect from him?

[LittleOldLadyWho]

Unfortunately, he seems to drone on!

Here's a concept. Maybe cable news 24/7 is losing its momentum.

[EasyZee]

NEWS IS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT RATINGS!!! News is supposed to be a public service.

[SiberianRat]

Sadly, that idea is long since dead and buried.

[cjk002]

Says who?

You should take a look at some newspapers from 100 years ago, when there were hundreds of newspapers owned by lots of different people, they were far more slanted than they are now, and they were far more sensational in order to get people to buy them.

The idea that the news media is supposed to be impartial has only been around since the advent of TV and radio. Since the government owns the airwaves, it was thought that there should be a balance between liberal and conservative. That's where the idea of the Fairness Doctrine came from.

The framers of the constitution wanted a free press because they wanted the writers of pamphlets and newspapers to be able to say whatever they wanted, I don't think we should treat our contemporary media any different.

I would much rather decide for myself what a fair interpretation of the news is instead of some editor with an arbitrary opinion of what an impartial interpretation is.

[troika]

and with true journalistic values..