To be honest, it seems to me all the programs now at CNN have dropped in ratings and it isn't because FOX News has gotten better, it's because Aaron Brown isn't anchoring anymore. No one at CNN ever thought Aaron literally floated the other shows with an overshadowing of expertise as Managing Editor.
I heard Jeff Greenfield on the Don Imus Show today. He was very different than most of his dialogues on CNN. He is starting up a former PBS show starring Corporate Executives, their style, their story. Sounded pretty good. I don't know all of what goes on behind the scenes at CNN but I don't believe letting Aaron Brown go on vacation for the rest of his contract was a wise move.
If you ever read this Aaron. Enjoy the attention a fan who identifies himself as a Christian applauded you since you were at ABC.
Aaron Brown
(Click on the line below)
This might be the first time that I’ve ever written about shake-ups at a news network...
CNN has fired Aaron Brown.
Over the last few years Brown has been CNN’s only real bright light. Wasn’t his first day on the air at CNN on September 11th? His coverage that day was remarkable for a live event.
Brown is a rare bird in television these days: he is a journalist and a fine one at that. His character and intellect remind you of Murrow or Cronkite.
There was a winter several years ago that I worked overnight shifts at a youth shelter. Most of those nights – when all the kids where asleep – I’d go through paperwork and watch the overnight news program that Brown anchored for ABC. It was then I became a fan of this former Seattle newsman.
Television news and how it is delivered has always been important to me.
One of my favorite activities as a kid was to hang out on Saturdays at the television news rooms in the stations my father worked for. My dad, who worked as a news anchor and later producer, often worked on weekends and would sometime let me tag along.
Growing up around television reporters – and later being interview by them because of my work on issues of homelessness – helped develop a sense for me of what is good journalism and what is entertainment dressed up as journalism. No one would question that entertainment is valued today more highly that serious news.
Brown, however, has always delivered the news and apparently CNN’s new management doesn’t consider that worth the investment. In his interviews he presses the spin masters so prevalent in politics for the facts behind the spin. And he does so in this homespun conversational kind of style that isn’t arrogant or off-putting. His program at CNN – which I often enjoyed watching – valued substance over flash. I don’t know a thing about his politics but his character as a journalist has always been evident.
I hope another network has the good sense to hire him again – and soon. Television news needs people like him.
