ANDERSON COOPER - O'REILLY SLAMS CNN FOR FIRING DOBBS

O'REILLY SLAMS CNN FOR FIRING DOBBS

Bill O'Reilly scolded CNN Monday for dumping Lou Dobbs and turning his time period into another outlet for traditional news. With Dobbs sitting across from him, O'Reilly remarked, "We don't have anything against CNN. ... NBC News, we don't like. But CNN, I don't have anything against you guys." Dobbs quickly corrected, "It's those guys now." O'Reilly then reprised a theme he first presented at Boston University last month, when he said, "You have to evolve if you want to survive in the commercial world. If you are going to do a straight newscast in primetime, you are going to lose." He expanded on that theme Monday night, saying "Campbell Brown is getting murdered. Larry King has declined, like 80 percent. Anderson Cooper is getting hammered. So they want more of that? Does that make sense to you?" Dobbs himself explained his departure this way "Management decided to take CNN in a direction in which advocacy journalism would not be part of it. Their ratings are lower than they should be, and I was partly to blame because my broadcast was in that lineup. They're now making choices trying to change that; they want to move toward a purely neutral presentation."

17/11/2009