-By Warner Todd Huston
On June 1, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer went to Twitter to crow about the success of CNN on its 33rd birthday and was razzed heartily for his enthusiasm. But even as he talks up his network, signs are pointing to Blitzer being forced out at CNN.
In his Tweet, Blitzer celebrated the 33rd anniversary of when “Ted Turner changed the way the world gets news.” He went on to promise, “and we’re only just beginning.”
33 years ago today Ted Turner launched @cnn & changed the way the world gets news. And we’re only just beginning.
— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) June 1, 2013
But those industry watchers reading the CNN tea leaves say that Blitzer may not be around for much more of that “beginning.”
As the New York Daily News points out, CNN staffers have been whispering about the slow retirement that the news network is forcing on the 65-year-old anchor.
“Wolf is going to be gradually phased out and replaced with a younger, hipper host,” one CNN insider dishes to Confidential. “The decision has been made that people want to look at beautiful people, and although Wolf is no beast, they’re thinking younger.”
The paper went on to say that Blitzer is on the verge of being replaced by a “younger, hipper host.”
The Daily News also reminded readers that CNN’s new chief Jeff Zucker has already dumped some of the older on air talent at CNN. James Carville, Mary Matalin and Roland Martin are all gone.
Last year CNN often found itself in the unenviable number three slot among the three news cablers and even though it has pulled ahead of MSNBC over the last few months, some of its programs are still struggling to find their ratings footing.
CNN is casting about for all sorts of solutions to its ratings woes. There is even talk of bringing the old Crossfire political debate show back to the airwaves. Crossfire was canceled in 2005 after several years of low ratings and complaints about the divisive style of the show.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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