FNC, MSNBC Respond to CNN’s Sales Pitch

After yesterday’s CNN “Newsmakers” upfront for advertisers, cable competitors MSNBC and Fox News Channel are weighing in.

During Tuesday’s presentation, CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton and CNN President Jon Klein defended the network’s ratings and advocated its journalistic approach. Klein stressed that CNN has “no bias, no agenda. Our traditional competitors have abandoned the field.”

Walton told the LA Times‘ Matea Gold that CNN’s ratings are “not as dire as maybe some people say…I’m not satisfied with the ratings, but I’m not concerned.”

In today’s New York Daily News, an MSNBC spokesman tells Richard Huff, “CNN thinks it’s still 1985, but the world has changed. Cable news viewers aren’t waiting until 8 p.m. to get their headlines: They want news, analysis and personality. That’s what MSNBC delivers and the viewers are abandoning CNN and flocking to us.”

An FNC spokesperson says, “If [CNN parent and Time Warner chairman] Mr. [Jeff] Bewkes is satisfied with Jim’s explanation for the dreadful performance of his cable news division, then who are we to judge?”

>Earlier: CNN Worldwide Pres: ‘Our fortunes, whether up or down, are news’

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