• Los Angeles Times, Thursday, June 22, 2006 11:45 AM

Ted Turner used to say that at CNN, "News is the star," writes Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times as he rips into the once-proud information outlet for an orgy of self-promotion over an interview with a Hollywood celebrity: Angelina Jolie's sit-down as the main attraction in a special two-hour "Anderson Cooper 360." The interview "does seem a watershed moment in the history of CNN, though, or maybe in the history of celebrity journalism," he says--for a network long derided as stodgy and out of touch. "The Anderson-Angelina meeting of minds does seem to whisper goodbye to all that," Collins says, adding that Cooper does not seem overly concerned. Rather, he "seems mostly angry about Internet haters who claim some sort of shadowy deal between his show and People magazine's purchase of Shiloh baby photos." Cooper claims she did it gratis. One thing is clear, Collins concludes. "Jolie will still be big. It's the news networks that got small."

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