Fareed Zakaria: Fox News Viewers 'Are Not Going To Watch CNN. Let's Be Honest' (AUDIO)

CNN's Fareed Zakaria said that the network he works for shouldn't try to get viewers of Fox News to watch it—because they won't.

Zakaria spoke to NPR correspondent David Folkenflik on Friday for a profile of CNN and its relatively new managing editor, Mark Whitaker.
The piece emphasizes Whitaker's attempts to bring more reportorial depth to the network, and Zakaria said that the efforts are working.

"CNN is getting smarter, and you can feel it in the stories," Zakaria said. "You can feel it in the depth with which they're covered, the kinds of people in terms of guests who are brought on air, the ways in which issues are discussed."

He then said that CNN shouldn't even be trying to compete with Fox News.

"The people who watch Fox are not going to watch CNN. Let's be honest," Zakaria said. "Our competitors should properly be The New York Times, the BBC and NPR."

LISTEN:

Comments

[peakprfmr1]

01:12 AM on 08/07/2011

I watch fox news and cnn and several others

[Laurella Desborough]

09:28 PM on 07/07/2011

Fareed Zakariah is right... the FOX News watchers do not want to be educated, they want to hear what they already believe...with lots of emotion. People who watch CNN, including the Spitzer show, are people who want to be informed, not reassured in their political beliefs.

[Sumsanity]

03:19 PM on 07/06/2011

I watch them both. and MSNBC and PBS. I avoid Zakaria because I got tired of his blatant left wing bias. He's wrong most of the time.

[RABSR]

03:11 PM on 07/06/2011

This mans recent rant about re-writing our Constitution by means of internet suggestions was as stunning as it was despicable.

I pay attention to this subversive only because he is an admitted mouth-piece for G Soros and the globalist crowd and it is prudent to understand your enemy.

Even with the current administration in control of our military, we are too strong to be defeated in a traditional sense. The only way to bring us down is from within and that is certainly well underway.

This president is complicit and uses the Constitution, Congress, and the Courts when convenient and ignores them when troublesome to fulfill his personal mandate to dilute our sovereignty, weaken our military, dismember the Constitution, and systematically eliminate our individual freedoms.

Why are the globalists and the presidential co-conspirator doing this?

The “why” is no longer important.

Whether by design or incompetence it has become an obvious and undeniable truth that this president and his media enablers has and continues to pursue a suicidal approach to our national well being.

If the Tea Party had a unifying slogan, which it doesn’t, it may well be; enough is enough.

[lisaman]

02:32 PM on 07/06/2011

Who could possibly argue with his logic?

[Connee]

10:32 AM on 07/06/2011

Fareed Zhachar is one of the most respected minds in the news media world today. He gets all the best interviews from the heads of every country. I admire him the most. He is right, people who watch Faux News, will never watch CNN. They do not have the mental comprehension, the mental reasoning to understand what Fareed is saying. Those viewers of Faux News are comprised of the 40% of the functionally illiterate in the US. The people who would vote against their own best interests, and did in this last election..Viewers who believe in the many falsehoods perpetrated by this Aussie's agenda. Sad. Sad comment on our undereducated society.

[lisaman]

02:35 PM on 07/06/2011

I think you and I would make very good friends! Check my micro bio and my picture goes with yours, he is a rescue! Not to mention I agree 100% with your post!

Fand F

[Texemale]

03:01 PM on 07/06/2011

Wrong again, Libs...Fareed is one of the most respected minds "among those who believe just like this unabashed Moslem believes and that is most of you who are in the Party of.... "Yes" we are all things to all people which means we don't have one moral conviction worth shouting to stand on that is anything close to what the Founding Fathers had in mind . Have a friend in England who told me the worst thing his country has done post WW2 is open their doors to several million Moslems who still (believe it or not) see most of us blue eyed types as their version of the infidel. And Fareed, you are leaving millions of Indepedents off your narrow-minded comment about those of us who only watch Fox. Ever heard of keeping certain people close to the vest? Well, that is why many who watch Fox wil watch CNN but will never follow their polticis. The mid-term elections of 2010 was a huge sample of what America stil thinks of who the main stream media still goes zonkers with. Well, when Americans start shooting Americans for a loaf of bread come back and tell us what you think about your non-stop campaigner/non leader then. 17% unemployment, America...believe it.

[Soulpractioner]

06:18 PM on 07/06/2011

If the rest of the "blue-eyed types" are anything like you, then the Muslims are right!!!

[lesterbud]

12:10 PM on 07/07/2011

Sad to be you.

[hfpf]

10:29 PM on 07/05/2011

I watch CNN and FOX equally. Sometimes I even watch more CNN than FOX. Guess that disproves your theory.

[Waywrdchld]

11:41 AM on 07/06/2011

I don't believe you.

[hfpf]

08:15 PM on 07/06/2011

LOL....and just how do you intend to prove or disprove my comment.

[Dosadi]

08:54 PM on 07/05/2011

People. Good grief. It's time to give it all up. There is no left wing agenda and there is no right wing agenda. It is all about politics. The purpose of politics is to divide the people up into sides. Then the political pundits feed the two sides a hash mash of rhetoric, lies and propaganda. Anyone who thinks tax cuts can help our economy is a nut pure and simple. It has never happened, there is no proof to indicate it ever has or will and there are no numbers that can be crunched to back up the lie. On the same token anyone who thinks that caving in to the demands of terrorists will bring about a good outcome is crazy. Every time the dems give in to the GOP terrorists they sell our country further into its demise. The GOP will keep demanding more and more silliness unless the dems just say enough and call their bluff. That is why I feel politics is worthless. The polls (if they can be believed) all say that the people are not in favor of the GOP agenda. This means the democrats can put an end to the republican party any time it wants just by bending to the will of the people. But they won't do it because they need the republican party. The dems need an enemy and the republican party is the chosen enemy. So the political games continue while our country suffers. And it is just a coincidence that the rich in America are not ever going to be allowed to suffer or sacrifice in order to bring balance back into the life equation of the USA.

[tibi]

08:25 PM on 07/06/2011

I see the Democrat/Republican dynamic more as a good cop/bad cop thing. They are not enemies. Rather, they are both on the side of the wealthy and powerful most of the time. The Repubs are openly and unapologetically in favour of the rich getting richer while the Dems claim to be for the poor and middle classes, yet they almost invariably cave to Republican demands. If the Dems were really what they claim to be (i.e. on the side of the bottom 95 percent of Americans), and backed up their rhetoric with backbone they would bury the Republicans politically. I just don't see how the Repubs can will win on a platform of crushing the middle class to further enrich the wealthy without help from the Democrats.

[Brooke Luckey]

09:39 PM on 07/06/2011

My God! If you really believe what you say then you must get your news from the back of a cereal box! I agree that it is time to give up all of the political nonsense. Our country is totally out of control. We are sliding into a Totalitarian form of government that will be the end of all of our Constitutional Freedoms over time. We have millions, yes, I said MILLIONS of people that would love to see our country under Sharia Law and are working tirelessly to make that happen. We MUST come together as AMERICANS to protect our history, our heritage and our way of life. If we can't agree on that then we are doomed.

[Dosadi]

07:27 PM on 07/08/2011

Sharia law?

That is not something worth worrying about.

[gypsy508]

02:12 PM on 07/29/2011

You need to see someone. You need help.

[OneWordAmerican]

08:12 PM on 07/05/2011

Fareed is a left wing freak----- calm and deliberate in his delivery----but passively anti america in his intent

[Discipulus04]

09:08 PM on 07/05/2011

seems like you are the freak. Anything opinion that dissents from yours is labeled anti-American. Fareed Zakaria is quintessentially American. He contributes more to discourse and other areas that you ever will if you lived to be 500.

[OneWordAmerican]

09:39 PM on 07/05/2011

Is he pakistani? Why is fareed so an america hater?

[OneWordAmerican]

09:44 PM on 07/05/2011

what if i live to 600? sad soul

[dididangerlove]

05:18 PM on 07/05/2011

He's right. Fox is sleazy and stupid. Look at the reprehensible hacking allegations against News of the World, a UK Murdoch paper. A fish rots from the head down and Fox stinks on ice.

[OneWordAmerican]

08:13 PM on 07/05/2011

why do you care so much about fox viewers if they are so stupid?

[Dosadi]

08:43 PM on 07/05/2011

He may be tired of the smell.

[Student of Sophocles]

07:50 AM on 07/06/2011

Because "stupid" is scary and can be dangerous, very dangerous.

[OLJW00]

04:52 PM on 07/05/2011

Interesting how little time people at FOX spend talking about the other networks whilst the opposite couldn't be further from the truth.

I suppose it's easy to see who is the proverbial king of the hill.

silly libs

[signgrrl]

02:02 PM on 07/06/2011

and yet, here you are, talking about - wait for it - another network !

[OLJW00]

06:08 PM on 07/06/2011

the funny part being I never call for it to be taken off the air or make fun of those that watch it now do I?

[neo-moderate]

03:07 PM on 07/06/2011

It would be different if they weren't such a propaganda machine...or if they reported facts and not lies, but Cheney forbid they ever stray from the narrative...

[OLJW00]

06:09 PM on 07/06/2011

the left spends soooo much time and energy worrying about what other people are doing and saying I find it amazing they (you) consider yourselves tolerant.

[citizenz]

04:15 PM on 07/05/2011

I think he is saying Fox news is fair and biased....

[OLJW00]

04:53 PM on 07/05/2011

and MSNBC has no dog in the hunt right?

[JacksonJones]

06:20 PM on 07/05/2011

So, you agree that FOX is biased, its just that you want to insist that MSNBC is too, right?

[Rope-A-Dope]

03:45 PM on 07/05/2011

I disagree somewhat. I think CNN does temporarily pick up Fox viewers when a major event is unfolding and they want current news as it happens. Otherwise, he's right. Fox viewers don't tune in to Fox to learn the news -- they tune in to have their pre-conceived notions validated.

[OLJW00]

04:54 PM on 07/05/2011

but it's not like you have pre-conceived notions" about what FOX viewers want or anything right?

laughable

[JacksonJones]

06:21 PM on 07/05/2011

Mine weren't pre-conceived. My notions are derived from the facts I observe, which lead me to the same conclusions as Fareed's (and Jon Stewart's).

[wkb2texans]

03:37 PM on 07/05/2011

He's right on ... BBC and NYT have declining viewership/readerships. CNN ought to be following those models!! LOL.

[OLJW00]

04:50 PM on 07/05/2011

too funny!

[JacksonJones]

06:27 PM on 07/05/2011

Right, cause viewership = good information right? Just ask the WWE!

[wxw101]

03:11 PM on 07/05/2011

CNN burned its own bridge by taking the liberal side of the news for far too long. FOX news was the social response to this, and it too will suffer the same fate if it doesn't find a way to balance itself a bit more.

Fareed is just pissed that more people don't subscribe to his views, as he, like most bobbleheads, assume that the "FOX viewer" can not intellectualize his views. Granted, he has a gifted mind as well as an exceptional understanding of the middle-east, but like Kissenger and many other much more accomplished people, his is just another view point. A little hubris would do Fareed well.

[Samca]

10:27 AM on 07/06/2011

Fareed's views are taken from the actual facts, hard for some people to understand. He truly has a very fine mind.

[trbilbo]

05:34 PM on 07/06/2011

Finally.... an intelligent post on Huff and Puff. Well said.