PHILLIPS: CNN and the Titanic

What is the difference between CNN and the Titanic?

The only casualties from CNN’s sinking will be careers, not lives.

For CNN, the bad news has hit. With no new race riots or crashing Malaysian airliners to boost ratings, CNN is back in the ratings basement again.

While the normal rules of journalism may not always apply at CNN, the rules of business do. A business must bring in more money than it loses or it must make cuts. Since payroll is usually a business’ single largest expense, that is often what is first cut.

At CNN and Headline News, the ax is about to drop on 500 people.

Five hundred people are about to be thrown out into the cold, cruel world many people now refer to as the Great Obama Depression.

CNN has been here for almost 35 years and without a doubt, its finest hour, or at least the one with the highest ratings, was its broadcasts from Baghdad during the first Gulf war. Of course CNN hired anti-American journalists, such as Peter Arnett who refused to help the American military with information after he was thrown out of Iraq.

CNN’s politics have always tacked hard left. This started with its founder, Ted Turner. Mr. Turner is somewhere to the left of Karl Marx and makes Rachel Maddow of MSNBC look like Phyllis Schlafly.

CNN dominated cable news until something akin to the iceberg hitting the Titanic hit CNN. In October 1996, Fox News launched.

Fox News tilted to the right. Of course, compared to the rest of the mainstream media, any news organization that offered a critical word about the Democrats would be significantly to the right.

Something else amazing happened, too.

Fox News began to dominate the cable news ratings.

CNN and the Karl Marx channel, as real Americans refer to MSNBC, cratered.

CNN tried a variety of shows with hard-charging liberals and the occasional mushy Republican, like Kathleen Parker. The one notable exception was when CNN brought in Newt Gingrich for their resurrection of “Crossfire.”

CNN is dying from insanity. After all, insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

CNN and Turner Broadcasting have tried the same thing over and over again. They tilt the news to the left, bring in left-wing personalities and reporters, and the same thing happens over and over again.

CNN’s ratings drop even further.

The one thing CNN has not tried is to do what Fox News started doing. Go conservative.

For the executives at Turner that may be heresy, but it is the only thing they have not tried.

There is a reason why Fox dominates. It is the only news network that approaches being conservative. There is a reason why Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck dominate talk radio. In fact, in the list of major talk-show hosts, there is only one liberal, Thom Hartmann. All of the rest are conservative.

If CNN took a conservative editorial point of view, something amazing would happen. CNN would quickly dominate the ratings.

Turner Broadcasting executives seem to be more concerned about left-wing ideology than they are about making a profit. That is their choice. Their shareholders might have something to say about it but the executives to get run the company until they are replaced.

Meanwhile, if CNN continues on its current trajectory, soon the knitting channel will have more viewers than CNN.