CNN: Living Proof That Market Dominance Does Not Necessarily Last

People under 30 probably have no direct memory of it, but at one point, CNN equaled news.  And if you did not believe that, Darth Vader told you so.  This week, however, layoffs and "managerial changes" are convulsing the network.

When movies wanted to include realistic news references in the early 1990s, they cited CNN.  They were everywhere and showed everything.  Why wait for Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw's updates at the top of the hour or their full broadcast at 6:30?  You could see it now on CNN.

The era of CNN's ownership of modern news came only a little over a decade after the retirement of CBS' Walter Cronkite.  It also came in most major newspapers' most profitable years.

What happened?

Part of the problem emerged in the 1990s when a personal friend of President Bill Clinton's was chosen to lead CNN.  Regardless of the resulting coverage, this created at least the perception, if not the outcome, of a conflict of interest. 

A real or perceived liberal bias opened the market for competition.  This included the conservative leaning Fox News and (at the time) the even more conservative MSNBC.

Does anyone remember when MSNBC featured Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson?

Viewers latched onto Fox News, which eventually became the leading cable television news outlet.  Others turned away from television (and tangible newspapers) altogether and started using the internet as a primary news source.

CNN struggled to adapt while trying to maintain their image as the "real" news source.  A 2012 Pew survey praised CNN for keeping 55 percent of its broadcast focused on news (as opposed to 45 percent for Fox News and less than 10 percent for MSNBC.) 

Recent hires should have helped.  Jake Tapper headlines one of CNN's premiere spots.  He is one of the few media figures respected from all ideological points of view.

Problems, however, continued. Reports of extravagant overspending in times of declining ratings dog the news of layoffs.  And these layoffs and early retirements affect many of CNN's most senior, most experienced, and core personnel.

Whatever the problems are, clearly CNN has still not discovered the solution to its viewership and profitability woes in this competitive media age.  The network built its reputation and market dominance in an era of no competition. Only figuring out a way to regain competitive advantage can bring it back towards what it once was.

Hard Times For the Clintons

Give the Clintons credit.  They have at least enough self-awareness to understand when they have not been self-aware.

Hillary Clinton let slip a moderately damaging assessment of her family's post presidency finances.  "We were dead broke," she said.

Should she run for president, she will find those four words as ubiquitous as Mitt Romney's offhand 47 percent comment.  She will have to explain ad nauseum what she meant and that she does really understand what truly broke really means.

This will likely grow tiresome.  Neither Clinton entered the world with guaranteed millions and both, especially Bill, understand what poverty feels like. Saying "dead broke" instead of struggling to meet responsibilities was a huge error in judgment.

The Clintons, however, did the right thing.  When confronted with their own version of tough times, like good free market entrepreneurs, they cashed in.  People wrongly envy Bill Clinton's huge speaking fees.  There is nothing wrong with making top dollar.  The onus lies on those who pay the fees, especially if they pay from the public purse.  Bill Clinton or the town dog catcher can ask a million dollars to speak.  No one has to pay.

Problem is that being Democrats comes with connection to the party's ideology. One cannot just comfortably defend a million (or tens of millions) dollars honestly made. Nationally, the Democratic Party has moved well to the Left of the centrist comfort zone Bill Clinton always claimed.  If Hillary runs in 2016, Leftist candidates such as Martin O'Malley (does anyone doubt that this failure is running for president?) will hurl this statement back at her over and over.  Clinton will face class warfare, this time against her and the profits reaped by her family after the presidency.

Politico Has Bad News For Rahall, Other House Candidates

"There is no question that Democratic donors are shifting toward the Senate in 2014," Democrat megadonor and Nancy Pelosi friend Joe Cotchett told Politico.

Democratic donors may likely chalk up the House of Representatives as unwinnable and concentrate on keeping the Senate in their hands.

With noted congressional prognosticator Larry Sabato now rating the WV 03 race a tossup, diminishing Democratic support could help cost Nick Rahall the seat he has held for decades.

Mainstream America...Politico Thinks You Are Stupid

Politico is a magazine that almost no one has heard of, at least outside of Washington DC. They think that we are stupid.

Editor-in-Chief of Politico, John Harris, ranted on C-SPAN about voters and how they respond to polls. The Washington Examiner noted that he actually assigned a reporter to investigate whether or not voters are stupid based upon poll results and numbers.

Typical liberal or typical Washington. If the polls do not agree with you, they must be stupid. What other explanation is there?

First of all, does Harris know anything about polling? I used to work at a phone polling center. Polls typically last between 10 and 30 minutes. They are draining on the questioner and the person answering. Usually the questions get jumbled up, asking the respondent to answer about peanut butter, then presidential candidates. The questioner must battle to keep the respondent on the line with no promise of reward.

This is how we gauge opinions in the United States.

Also, what intelligent political analysts understand is that people follow their self-interest. Obama voters were not stupid, nor were they all Commies. They had their own complex set of interests. For some, it boiled down to the self-interest of simply voting for the first black president.

Most voters are pretty smart, but have very specialized knowledge and experiences.

Harris is a condescending ass.