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

[bronncohowie]

Of course his ratings suck because he is the "softest" interviewer around. His "interviews" are just like a George Bush press conference, he is given the questions he may ask first.

[Monn]

He was the only interviewer I saw actually asking Liz Cheney hard quesions. There's no way she approved those.

Most of the time he's playing discussion moderator, which is a different role than interviewer.

[Manx]

I miss Brown alright but not Campbell Brown. I miss Aaron Brown. After CNN dumped Aaron Brown, the news went tabloid. On the day the California Supreme Court announced it's decision to uphold the revision to the Constitution banning gay marriage, CNN featured the comments of Miss California. Like rubbing it in.

[politicali]

Aaron Brown was great! MSNBC should hire him. Anderson is really bad and appears really dumb and superficial.

[marijam]

Actually, after his emotional meltdown he went too far to the right and I stopped watching him. Same with Lou Dobbs. After he got his radio program, he went too far to the right and I stopped watching him. Now, the only news I watch is the Ed Show.

[Solja]

What emotional meltdown? I missed that?

I used to watch Dobbs too but when Obama started moving up in the primaries, Lou started having a mild brain infarction and lost it and all of his credibility. I recall a show where the Director of this popular Hispanic organization (I can't think of the name for the life of me!) was invited on his show and the lady chewed Lou up and spit him out on his own show. It was hilarious and she brought things to light for me from the Hispanic perspective. Sometimes we don't see the racism until its confronted, and Lou Dobbs is the most vocal racist on a mainstream tv show, even worst than BillO and the rest of them. Don't believe me? Ask Keith O!

[WhatDaBleep]

Maybe he should start lying like all the Fox reporters do and watch his ratings go up.

[Ping]

I'm guessing that it has to do with production budgets, insurance, and Cooper's contract with CNN, but he was a lot better when he was running around in Israel dodging the Hamas rocket attacks. And visiting Lebanon to report on the politcal situation there.

And since he has spent time in Africa, I was surprised that he didn't go to East Africa when the pirate drama was playing out. When Erin Burnett of CNBC travels to Egypt to interview sailors who are about to enter the piracy zone while Anderson and his sidekick twitter away in NYC, it is kinda clear someone has lost his edge.

[Solja]

I don't think he's lost his "edge". I just think that his international work is clearly superior to his stateside work. The producer(s) of his show have real responsibility in the decline of his show. They need to produce more "news" and less "entertainment". It SHOULD be clear that his audience is not interested in this aspect of his show.

I am a poll taker and I remember doing a poll where I was asked a series of questions on whether I liked entertaining news, as opposed to the CBS kind of news. Back then, I liked a mix, but now I see they got that twisted. Entertaining news would be more like Olberman, not Cooper. This shouldn't mean stories about Britney or Octomom. It should mean humor infused with the story, not the story coming from Hollyweird.

[Ping]

I liked the fact that he took you there and showed you. Instead of talking about it.

[expired]

CNN- C ** l a n Nt***work N****00se many times would refer to President Obama as Mr. Obama. This happens quite a bit on the local radio. I listen to the Bill Press Show in the am and they use the N ****00se network as their news feed, No respect for the president.

[expired]

Zizi- thanks for the chuckle!

[jazzman]

Anderson Cooper became a media star in his reporting of the Katrina disaster. He showed promise, moxy, and real ability. Then he just kind of wimped out. He's never lived up to the promise he showed in those few weeks after the Hurricane hit. I don't know why that happened but I suspect it's the corporate nature of CNN that kept him from cutting loose and doing real, hard hitting journalism rather than raising diversionary issues devised by his corporate masters to keep the audience distracted and kept away from looking at real issues. Cooper is just the wrong person for the shilling job. You need vacuous blond bimbettes like they have over at FOX for that kind of work.

[Christopher in NYC]

Yes, but history attests that mankind has expressed an ongoing and irrepressible fascination with bimbettes.­...

Just part of our genetic makeup.... FOX simply caters to the fantasy.

[Ping]

I'm remembering that Anderson got a $50 million contract from CNN that made KO's head explode. Since then he has become more of an anchor than a correspond­ent/journa­list. These days he comes in just reads the teleprompter then goes home. Easy money baby.

[poaster]

Most people are clicking over to the Extenze informercial. We need a DC 360.

[wingsabre]

I liked Aaron Brown more. He didn't degrade himself and report about tabloid stuff like missing white girls or celebrity sex scandals. In other words, what was covered pertained to us, and was about about sensationalizing crime. Anderson Cooper's turning into a male Nancy Grace, with a format that could easily be distilled to a shorter time frame. We don't need his caption section, we don't need his talk show like format with Erica Hill, and we don't need useless news.

How can Anderson Cooper boost the ratings? Instead of talking about celebrity gossip with Erica, why now take out a bunch of news papers, and discuss about the headlines. It was effective on Aaron Brown's show, and it is quite effective on Morning Joe. Also, if they're not doing that then they should make the show truly 360 again. Send him to more places around the world to report. Panel sections can be done by Erica back in New York or DC.

The world prefers to watch Anderson Cooper from CNN who also reports for 60 minutes, and not the Anderson Cooper from The Mole.

[zizyphus]

I feel sorry for Cooper when he is talking about gay rights issues. It must be very difficult for him to interview "out" gay folks, about the stands they take, when he is closeted. It doesn't add to his credibility.

[franklin14]

Uhh, well, why doesn't he come out then?

Everybody knows anyway. Why feel sorry for him. I spend more time trying to read him while he is doing these interviews than really paying attention to the interview.

[LMKay66]

Does anyone know for a fact if he's gay, or is it because he's 40 and not married that people assume he's gay?

[zizyphus]

His boyfriend thinks he is.

[wingsabre]

It's none of our business what he does with his personal life. Anchorman should not mix personal stuff with the news, and his job is to do the news. He can do whatever or whom ever he wants behind the scene, and it should not matter.

[JaneQCitizen]

How can Cooper be closeted when every knows he's gay? You make no sense

[Christopher in NYC]

Anderson, get yourself a hot girlfriend any maybe get in a fight in a bar or something.­..

Time for a makeover, you're too predictabl­e... (Predictable = Boring=Poor Ratings)

[LMKay66]

I've heard he's gay.

[lookupamerica]

He seems to just be pushing what he's told to push in a robotic way. The last truthful anchor was Aaron Brown who on 9/11 said, "that looked like a demolition" and shortly after that was never to be seen again on CNN. When the "news" can't tell the truth it gets old listening to fluff so we can live in a fantasy world. CNN used to be all about pushing the truth but no more. As for Dobbs, change it up a bit...we can only stand so many illegal alien stories. Try talking about all the Russians in Denver or all of the Jews wrapped around 9/11. Shhh.

http://thefounderground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5367

[zizyphus]

The whole MSM has completely closed off any rational discussion of alternate theories about 911. We will have to wait decades to find out the whole story, which will be a horrid and shameful one. Like Operation Northwoods.

[oscartucker]

Andereson Cooper's show is on at the wrong time. He should be in the 9:00 p.m. slot in competition with Rachel Maddow, but CNN thinks that Larry King is best. Better yet, Lou Dobbs should be let go; Cooper could be right there. He would probably be good there as Chris Matthews' comes back on a second time on MSNBC. Sometimes I watch AC360 just to see how a subject is covered, but by the time it's on, I have already seen top stories on MSNBC. I like the panels that Cooper has on, but I dislike his "Gotcha" approach on many stories.

[RJII]

caffferty is the best in CNN. They need to eliminate most of their fembots.

[Willow207]

I agree! Jack is the only journalist with a shred of decency and integrity on CNN. All the rest are sell outs!