News
Eliot Spitzer’s New CNN Show
Andrew Limbong :: Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 2:00 pm
In a fairly shameless act of ratings-grabbing, CNN announced today that former New York State Governer Eliot Spitzer will be a co-host on a CNN “roundtable discussion” style show. Apparently defacing yourself publicly, sleeping with hookers, and ruining your marriage will get you a show on a 24-hour news network.
According to CNN, it looks like the show will be focused on debate. ““Other cable news channels force-feed viewers one narrow, predictable point of view,” said Jon Klein, President of CNN/US. “In contrast, CNN will be offering a lively roundup of all the best ideas – presented by two of the most intelligent and outspoken figures in the country.”
Spitzer’s co-host is Pulitzer Prize winning, nationally syndicated columnist, Kathleen Parker. She’s got some pretty decent credentials behind her. But Spitzer? Of course the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when they hear his name is the prostitution scandal from a while back that put him through the wringer, and eventually led to his resignation as governor. Which begs the question: “why, CNN?”
If debate is going to be at the crux of your new show, then what you need are two opposing, but equally credible talking heads discussing the big issues. Not one credible journalist, and another whose opinions could easily be dismissed at the mention of the word “prostitution.”
This isn’t a completely innocuous maneuver on CNN’s part either, because it’s possible that Spitzer could bring up decent points. Just because you’ve made mistakes in the past doesn’t mean you can’t have good points. He did, after all, propose a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New York back in 2007. But any good points he does come up with will ultimately be connected to his deceitful acts as governor. He just makes things look bad.
