'She Was a Total Embarrassment to the Network'

Considering we're talking about CNN here it takes a lot to embarrass them judging by the abysmal lineup and slanted "news" they offer up. But I guess having a D-list hack cause enough grief two years running is enough even for the low-rated cable wasteland.

Kathy Griffin won’t be allowed back on CNN’s New Year’s Eve show after two consecutive years of profanity-laced jokes, AOL.com’s PopEater blog reported Tuesday, citing executives at the news network.

A year after ringing in 2009 by trading barbs with a heckler on live television the comedian one-upped herself with a series of adult-themed jokes while standing next to straight-laced anchor Anderson Cooper.

“She was a total embarrassment to the network that calls themselves 'The Most Trusted Name in News.' Even Anderson thinks it's time to say goodbye to Kathy,” a CNN insider told PopEater.

Of course it's OK for Anderson Vanderbilt to tell teabagging jokes. I guess his bloated contract is too much for them to swallow.

In a comedy bit with Cooper approximately 40 minutes before the ball dropped in New York’s Times Square, Griffin mispronounced the name of six-year old “balloon boy” Falcon Heene, replacing his first name with a profanity that begins with the same letter. Cooper averted his eyes and mumbled “You’re terrible," before quickly switching to a new topic.

Later, she asked Cooper “How do you not just stare in the mirror all day," adding another adult reference. He responded tersely that he’d be jobless by the morning.

I doubt the trust fund baby would ever have to working about paying the rent if he did get the ax.

CNN is the "total embarrassment" here, not just the idiots who signed off on having this clown on again after she "embarrassed" them last year. They're so desperate for ratings and trying to be hip and edgy and it just blows up in the faces.

Maybe next year they can hire someone with talent, assuming they're even still in business.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

'They've Turned It Into the Anderson Cooper Network, and It's Not Working'

Smug sanctimony can only take you so far, apparently.

The former host of "Celebrity Mole" should be happy he signed a multimillion-dollar, multiyear contract with CNN last year during the presidential race, when ratings were at an all-time high. If his contract were up now, Cooper would probably have to settle for far less.

The ratings have plunged for his show, "Anderson Cooper 360," since Obama's inauguration, and the drop in May has been steeper, especially in the coveted 25-54 demographic, where he's down nearly 30 percent from the previous month, averaging less than 250,000 demo viewers.

Tuesday night, Cooper raked in only 615,000 viewers overall. But it wasn't his slowest night ever -- that was May 8, when he clocked in a lousy 499,000 viewers.

A rep for Cooper wouldn't discuss May numbers but said, "Year to date, 'AC360' is having its second-best performance ever with an average of 1.161 million overall viewers and 369,000 in the target demographic. It has an impressive 51 percent advantage over MSNBC in total viewers and a 41 percent lead over MSNBC in the 25-54 demographic."

But insiders say top brass is questioning the CNN strategy of focusing so narrowly on Cooper in all their promos. "They've turned it into the Anderson Cooper network, and it's not working," said one source.

Maybe they should invite Liz Cheney back to throw another beating on him.

I'd tune in for that.

Liz Cheney Destroys Anderson Cooper

I normally don't bother watching CNN but happened across this last night while channel surfing.

She absolutely eats this twerp's lunch.

There's already a movement afoot to have her run for office.

Andy Vanderbilt: Hey, Guess What? That Tea-bagging Crack Was Pretty Stupid of Me, Huh?

Yeah, I guess when you're the subject of endless ridicule and you continue to scrape the bottom of the ratings barrel, a little introspection never hurt.

CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke at UCLA Sunday as part of the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture Series, and was asked about his "teabagging" comment last month during the Q&A portion.

Here is a video of his response, taken by an audience member.

Calling it a "stupid, silly, one-line aside," he touched on the attention it received. "I think it's an incorrect statement to say I was, in any way, trying to disparage legitimate protests," said Cooper. "I don't think it's my job to disparage, or encourage, which oddly other networks seemed to be doing. Protest is the great right of all Americans, and it's not my job in any way to make fun of people or disparage what they're doing."

He still can't resist a jab at Fox for heavily covering the tea parties, which only helped FNC's ratings. Conversely, CNN (as well as MSNBC) went out of their way to disparage the events, which earned them mockery. Does he not remember the name Susan Roesgen, by any chance?

I guess this wasn't disparaging?



Speaking of Roesgen, has this hack returned from her "vacation" yet?

Tea Party Protests a Boom for Fox Ratings

Is it any wonder the jealous morons at CNN and MessNBC are reduced to babbling incoherently about teabagging jokes?

Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, said the media coverage was "insulting," reacting specifically to CNN reporter Susan Roesgen's combative interviews with Illinois demonstrators in which she declared that the protests were "anti-CNN" and supported by FOX News. She left the teabagging jokes to her colleagues, though.

"I've never seen anything like it," Bozell said. "The oral sex jokes on (CNN) and particularly MSNBC on teabagging ... they had them by the dozens. That's how insulting they were toward people who believe they're being taxed too highly."

Max Pappas, public policy vice president at FreedomWorks -- a small-government group which promoted the tea parties -- said it's a "shame" media outlets cracked jokes at a genuine "grassroots uprising."

"I think what that reveals is how worried they are that this might actually be something serious. You make fun of things you're afraid of, I'd say," Pappas said.

If anyone thinks the orally charged remarks on mainstream cable were just a coincidence, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's segments over the past week with guest, Air America's Ana Marie Cox, would dissolve all doubt. Their on-air gymnastics, dancing around the double entendre of the week, looked like live-action Beavis and Butthead.

By one count, the two of them used the word "teabag" more than 50 times on one show. And on Monday, Cox even let the viewers in on their joke -- referencing Urbandictionary.com, a site which offers a number of colorful definitions for the term "teabagging."

"Well, there is a lot of love in teabagging," Cox said. "It is curious, though, as you point out, they do not use the verb 'teabag.' It might be because they're less enthusiastic about teabagging than some of the more corporate conservatives who seem to have taken to it quite easily."

Classy.

Expect these losers to really ratchet it up now.

Via Drudge:

FOX RATINGS SURGE ON PROTEST COVERAGE
8-11 PM ET

FOXNEWS 3,390,000
MSNBC 1,210,000
CNN 1,070,000
CNN HEADLINE 909,000

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,980,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,239,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,947,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,740,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,401,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,185,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,499,000
CNNHN GRACE 1,336,000
CNN KING 1,292,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,149,000
CNN COOPER 1,021,000

Fox crushed all the competition combined.

Hey, CNN, How'd That Kathy Griffin Thing Work Out?

Those live microphones always get you. Very old joke, mildly funny, but a no-no on live television.

Via Ace.