• The New York Times, Thursday, May 20, 2010 12:22 AM

CNN anchor Campbell Brown said she was leaving on her own accord, having concluded that she was unable to compete with the opinion-mongers that dominate cable news in prime time. For the last two years, Brown has tried to hold down the toughest time slot in cable news, 8 p.m. Eastern, the same time that Bill O'Reilly of the Fox News Channel and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC go head-to-head, reports The New York Times.

Compared with those bombastic opinion shows, her weeknight news program, titled "Campbell Brown," has struggled to gain an audience. It has attracted an average of 591,000 viewers so far this year, while "Countdown" on MSNBC has averaged 1 million, and "The O'Reilly Factor" from Fox, 3.34 million.

CNN has struggled in the prime-time ratings as cable news viewers have increasingly sought edgier, more opinionated programming. Brown, a former NBC News reporter, advertised a "no bias, no bull" persona in a straight news and analysis program with a concentration on politics, says AP.  Brown said it was her decision to leave. "I have never had much tolerance for others' spin, so I can't imagine trying to stomach my own," she said. "The simple fact is that not enough people want to watch my program, and I owe it to myself and to CNN to get out of the way so that CNN can try something else."

Brown was granted a release from her CNN contract, as was first reported Tuesday afternoon by the Web site Mediaite.

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