Time Warner Chairman: Fox News Channel..."crazy people exchanging views"

Broadcasting & Cable ^ | 8/6/2004 | John Eggerton

[Wondervixen]

Time Warner Inc. chairman Dick Parsons Friday described Fox News Channel as "crazy people exchanging views," telling a group of minority journalists in Washington he felt that the channel and his own Cable News Network are two different services.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/CA443471.html

[Wondervixen]

He has a point...FOX is "crazy people exchanging views."

CNN's is "prehistoric imbicillic socialists trying to convince the space age that they deseve another try."

[M Kehoe]

I guess Mr. Parsons is just a little irritated. That's what happens when your ratings (and ad revenue) head south.

8^)

5.56mm

[mewzilla]

That's what CNN gets for crawling into bed with dictators.

[marty60]

This guy is a "insane" as the CNN channel is biase. He apparently thinks the yelling and the vicious name calling of Carville, davis, Beckell etc etc, are civilized. What a stupid Boss. He doesn't even know what's happening on his own network.

[jimtorr]

Let the media mud throwing begin!

But still, Dick Parsons should know all about crazy people. It was CNN, after all, that was caught distorting the news on behalf of Saddam Hussein.

[longtermmemmory]

This is the company whose most recent effort to improve their profitability is to drop the AOL from AOLtimewarner, in name only.

Somebody should remind CNN shareholders that Bush cut capital gains to 15% whild clinton had it at 40%.

Kerry is going to increase it to 40 and beyond.

[longtermmemmory]

CNN's own incompetence opened the door for competition. IF CNN was doing a good job there would be no room for competition. Particularly competition that has erased time magazine's relavance and kicked CNN's ratings posterior.

[Dudoight]

Don't ya just love it! Parson's just doesn't get it.

[JerseyHighlander]

It's been a year since Dick Parsons was hailed as the "Savior of AOL TimeWarner". The shareholders will be demanding the guillotine treatment soon on CNN management. He's spinning the fact that people watch CNN for a few minutes and turn off in disgust at the agitation and bias as a positive for total number of viewers. He's saying CNN's programming loses the interest and eyes of viewers at the start of almost every commercial break. Yup, that sounds real positive to me, gonna help the ad rates too I'm sure.

[Callahan]

...as opposed to liberals exchanging lies.

[TYVets]

I will shed no tears for CNN, they deserve what they are reaping.

[Camel Joe]

I believe Pravda and Tass had a similar reaction to the fall of the Soviet Union. Aren't they the parent company of Time Warner?

[GBA]

The guy is clueless. If he is so blind to his own network's bias, then he deserves the loss in ratings and CNN's credibility that have resulted.

Even "grazing" at the Clinton News Network gives me indigestion. I won't watch their programming even though they have two cable channels here, nor even look at the pictures of the free copies of Time magazine they used to send. It's all land fill to me.

[reformedliberal]

People do tune in and then tune out, but it is just related to the boring cycle of their newsday.

FNC has the repeating Fox Tops, but the individual daytime anchors are not just news readers. They have interviews each segment and during the day, the debate/interview segments are varied. The daytime anchors all seem to be well-educated and knowledgable, even those w/whom I disagree.

This is hysterical, considering that lately FNC has had more Donks and more Kerry campaign people than GOPers or Bush campaign people.

Denial like this is pretty stunning. I hope their political acumen in as precise.

[bert]

Time Warner is a failed concept, an abyss into which billions were deposited and turned to vapor.

[InterceptPoint]

Time Warner Inc. chairman Dick Parsons Friday described Fox News Channel as "crazy people exchanging views...

Right.

Crazy Like a Fox.

[Nick Danger]

You tell 'em, Parsons. Those customers out there are watching the wrong thing, and it's about time that somebody at Time Warner got on their case about it. Those people out there are so stupid that they are watching crazy people exchanging views instead of the much superior Time Warner product.

I'm glad to see that at least one person at Time Warner understands the #1 rule of marketing: "The customers are the enemy." If those viewers out there are not behaving properly, you need to insult them by telling them that they are choosing stupid stuff instead of your good stuff. That will snap them right back into line.

[RayChuang88]

I think Mr. Parsons is suffering from a serious case of jealousy considering that every significant Fox News Channel program during weekdays pretty much has higher ratings (sometimes substantially so!) compared what is shown on CNN. And you wonder why Time Warner executives are not happy....

[George W. Bush]

I think Mr. Parsons is suffering from a serious case of jealousy considering that every significant Fox News Channel program during weekdays pretty much has higher ratings (sometimes substantially so!) compared what is shown on CNN.

For is the only conservative channel although it is primarily reactionary, responding to and refuting the lib spin on the news. Frankly, that alone is a full-time job for them. However, they don't break that many stories on their own, being so much smaller in staff and geographic coverage than the others.

Unlike Fox with its monopoly on conservative/rural viewers (think rural satellite, Fox's mainstay and origin), ABCNNBCBS and MSNBC and CNBC and all the lib outlets have to split the moderate to liberal viewer share among themselves.

I would say that a true middle-of-the-road network could probably clean up if it could establish itself. But there's no sign that any of the currennt players are interested. The media is now politicized to such an extent that no truly neutral network could hope to start up and survive.

[Bullish]

That's really got to hurt coming from a bombastic left winger.