• MarketWatch, Monday, January 23, 2006 11:45 AM

CNN is a fat target these days and thus easy to slap around, which MarketWatch columnist Jon Friedman does today with apparent impunity. "CNN is everything--and nothing. It has a little for everyone, which means it has no real personality or style or tone that it can call its own," write Friedman. The reason for this Monday-morning blast? It's the decision by Headline News, the CNN channel, to give radio host Glenn Beck his own show. Beck is a popular conservative radio host, widely syndicated throughout the country. The problem with that, Friedman argues, is that he "goes against everything CNN has claimed to stand for--a first-rate pedigree, a non-biased point of view and understated excellence. Beck's chief qualification is that he personifies controversy." Which means that if his Headline News show catches fire, it can move to CNN--and take on the likes of Bill O'Reilly, whose "Factor" is a huge deliverer of profits to Murdoch's Fox News operation. In other words, Friedman observes, CNN is shifting to the right in an effort to capture greater revenues. CNN "should stand for something--anything," complains Friedman. Instead, it continues to muck around, seeking an identity to call its own.

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