According to Drudge, not only is CNN *still* getting trounced by FoxNews, but now even Comedy Central's news program "The Daily Show" is pulling down better ratings than all but one CNN airing:

CABLE NEWS RACE MON, JAN. 17, 2005

FNC O'REILLY 2,719,000 [VIEWERS]
FNC HANNITY/COLMES 1,730,000
FNC SHEP SMITH 1,626,000
FNC GRETA 1,470,000
FNC BRIT HUME 1,445,000
CNN LARRY KING 1,442,000
COMEDY DAILY SHOW 1,049,000
CNN ZAHN 535,000
MSNBC MATTHEWS 530,000
CNN AARON BROWN 467,000
CNN COOPER 363,000
MSNBC SCARBOROUGH 349,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 342,000
(emphasis added)

I'm sure that those "in the biz" chalk The Daily Show's success up to the "18-35 disinterested viewer, interested more in entertainment than in watching the actual news." The problem with that assessment, however, is that these viewers are still tuning in to a news program and not to a rerun of Family Guy, which says that they are certainly not disinterested and are clearly interested in watching an informative news program.

CNN revamped both their flagship channel and the entire HN network about 5 years ago with hopes of appealing to a younger demographic - they added a lot of busy looking tickers and graphics to the screen, they "opened up" the studio so that the atmosphere looks more hectic, and they had their anchors start cajoling with one another during transitions to appear more "hip." The results? See above.

Deserved or not, Fox News has a reputation for being a right-biased channel. And John Stewart certainly makes no secret of his liberal viewpoints. If CNN wants to get back into the cable news race, perhaps they should take a cue from the market leaders and spend less time on trying to look "hip" and "cool" and spend more time being upfront about the bias that we all know is there.

CNN, an objective news source? Please. If that's their position, I think we've been calling the wrong channel "Comedy Central."