Media Snubs Herman Cain's SOTU Speech

Rebuttal planned for Tuesday

(NEWSER) - Herman Cain: the new face of the Tea Party? The former presidential candidate will deliver this year's Tea Party response to President Obama's State of the Union address, the Tea Party Express announced yesterday. Cain will offer the rebuttal Tuesday, CNN reports. The official response from the Republican Party will come from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. Also yesterday, Cain offered his "unconventional endorsement"—click to see who he endorsed . More»

Every cable news channel sees drop-off for first time in 12 years

(NEWSER) - CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all lost viewers last year for the first time in at least 12 years, a study finds. A Pew journalism group found a combined 13.7% drop in viewership, the largest decline of any news sector, and all three networks fell for the first time since the group began keeping track. Broadcast news, meanwhile, continued its decline with a 3.4% drop in 2010, the Hollywood Reporter notes. More»

Show's ratings haven't improved since debut

(NEWSER) - CNN may replace Kathleen Parker on its Parker Spitzer show, which has posted weak numbers against competitors, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . CNN lost a third of its evening viewers last year, and the 8pm show has struggled to grow its audience in the three months since its launch. Parker Spitzer has averaged 468,000 viewers in recent weeks, the same as when it began in October. In the same time slot, Fox News pulls in 2.6 million viewers, while MSNBC garners 874,000. More»

CNN's aiming for viciousness

(NEWSER) - Without Larry King, CNN’s going to be a much nastier place. King was the last of cable news’ gentlemen, laments Tom Shales of the Washington Post . His show “got to be an increasingly lonely outpost of humane civility in a mephitic menagerie of hotheads, saber rattlers, cretins and crackpots.” So what if he specialized in “softball” questions. That’s what got him such great guests. Besides, “why should every host have to deliver hardballs over the plate at 100 mph?” More»

Insiders pitch plans, from bringing back Crossfire to pulling an MSNBC

(NEWSER) - With CNN’s primetime viewership off 40% since last year, Michael Calderone at Politico undertakes a survey of news insiders to see what can be done for the “most trusted name in news.”

• Resurrect Crossfire: CNN could give people the outspoken MSNBC- and Fox-style opinions they appear to want, but the right vs. left format would keep the network itself neutral. "We were No. 1," says a former contributor, even with Lou Dobbs as a lead-in.