Commentary

Cable News Brands: They Report. They Decide. They Fight Among Themselves.

CNN should now be called the Cojones News Network because it took some to cancel a long-time staple show like "Crossfire" and let go a popular commentator, Tucker Carlson.

CNN president Jonathan Klein has a vision, and that's good news in the TV news business. CNN should primarily report the news, not talk about it as Fox News does, he said. Recently, that has helped ratings for everyone with the tsunami disaster story.

It isn't bad for either CNN and or industry leader Fox to have an even clearer brand identity. The problem is Fox News still has a scratch-your-head tag line -- "We report. You decide." -- which doesn't jibe with very public prime-time rants by Bill O'Reilly and company. In reality, that should be CNN's marketing pitch.

With CNN's plan, Fox should change to a clearer, more upfront brand theme: "We report. We decide." We can respect that.

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Carlson is now negotiating with MSNBC - the network that is finally looking to make a move out of third place in the cable news ratings race. Carlson wants one of those traditional show hosting jobs where there is a bit of news at the top of the show, followed by 55 minutes of rage, rants, and rigmarole from a panel of sometime suspect pundits and experts.

Carlson would get a plum 9 p.m. time slot, against the likes of Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes" and "Larry King Live" on CNN. Dream and nightmare - it's both sides of the coin that you wish for and will get.

What will become of the MSNBC brand? How about "We report. Maybe we decide. Maybe we are right wing, maybe left. Maybe you should figure it out yourselves."

It's a bit muddled. But it will never stand for the Muddled Soft News Bend-Over-Backwards Channel. We'll leave that to those hard-hitting entertainment news shows.

To be fair, MSNBC did make significant ratings improvements around the Republican and Democratic conventions. "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" - though not a big ratings winner - has consistently stirred the pot specifically with continued stories about voting irregularities during the presidential campaign.

And remember the 'MS' in MSNBC stands for Microsoft. Maybe Bill Gates should get a show, since he owns half of it. This would give the network a strong brand image right there: "We report. We decide. We can reboot."

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