Long live political coverage at CNN. How Jeff Zucker's “out with the old, in with the new” strategy could remake the way the network covers the circus.
In just a few days, Jeff Zucker's CNN announced five major personnel changes and saw rumors of more to come spreading across the internet. All the excitement made one thing very clear: ZNN will not be the place for politics.
Longtime contributors James Carville and Mary Matalin are gone, supposedly for technical reasons; Erick Erickson is headed for a better platform at Fox News; and CNN regulars Donna Brazile and Roland Martin are said to be on the chopping block.
Politico's Dylan Byers highlights the new regime's move away from the Beltway:
"The changes are part of Zucker's larger effort to transform CNN from an old, tired, 24-hour breaking news channel into an entertaining, personality-driven network that no longer restricts the definition of news ... meaning more sports, more entertainment, more human interest stories — and, at times, less politics."
Zucker's success during the Today show's glory days always hinted at certain disappointment for political junkies wishing that the new CNN would provide some kind of alternative to the fun but partisan choices at Fox News and MSNBC.
Well, less politics doesn't mean no politics, and in CNN's case it could just mean different politics.
Make a game out of politics.
Pit one judgy, all-knowing host with supreme power over scoring against a quartet of opinionated camera-ready scribes just champing at the bit to test their political smarts and well-honed Twitter wit in front of the cameras. Limit play to four rounds, and give that host a mute button. What do you get? Well, you get a political version of ESPN's legendary sports game show Around the Horn. So what? (h/t: Chris Cillizza)
Now, for the core cast...
