So Long, Little News Ticker | Tragic Comedy

Scott Hardie | January 14, 2005
In today's StudioBriefing (link) ...

In a major programming shakeup, CNN has announced that it will be adding long-form entertainment and legal news programs to its Headline News service during primetime and will drop many of the softer features during its Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn programs on its primary channel. CNN chief Jim Walton told the Winter press tour of TV critics in Los Angeles that the two news channels will be coordinated "so if there is a talk show on Headline News, there will be newscasts on CNN."

Damn it! I like Headline News! It's like my little Internet news channel: When for whatever reason I can't go online to read the news, I go to that channel to get it in a hurry. In most cases, I'm done in ten minutes. On the occasions when I need in-depth analysis or professional punditry, I can wait and get them online. Plus, it bothers me that a channel explicitly devoted to 24-7 news blurbs is now altering its format to include other content. That's like MTV broadcasting non-music-related content, one of my long-running gripes about that channel. (I was somewhat relieved when they introduced MTV2 to pick up the music-video slack that the main MTV had given up years earlier, but it didn't last. Before long, MTV2 was also showing actual programs instead of music videos. Arrgh!)

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