News came down yesterday that a major face was being shown the door as a national hub of power cleans house and works feverishly to show a new face to the public.
No, we’re not talking about White House political guru Karl Rove and his job working for President George W. Bush (yet).
We’re talking about CNN’s Aaron Brown, one of television’s more low-key and cerebral anchors, seemingly more a descendant of journalists raised on reading newspapers than on watching television broadcasts. His replacement: Anderson Cooper.
If you recall, Brown was a sturdy former ABC News reporter who became famous due to his truly solid breaking news coverage of 9/11 for CNN. Anderson, in turn, became famous after his aggressive and passionate coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
In both cases, once CNN saw it had a hot property, it immediately showcased him, giving him more and more air time. And since there is limited airtime….
The actual announcement was quite corporate and nuts-n-bolts. For instance, the New York times has this:
CNN ousted its longtime prime-time anchor, Aaron Brown, today in favor of Anderson Cooper, who has received extensive media attention in the wake of his widely publicized coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
Jonathan Klein, the president of CNN/U.S., said today that he and Mr. Brown had mutually agreed that Mr. Brown would leave the cable news network because the new CNN lineup left “no options” for a program that would include Mr. Brown. “It is, unfortunately, a zero-sum game,” Mr. Klein said.
On the other hand, if they had truly wanted to keep him, they would have fit him in somewhere. AND:
The realigned CNN lineup will place Mr. Cooper’s program “360,” which had previously run at 7 p.m. Eastern time weeknights, in the 10 p.m. time period that had been occupied for the last four years by Mr. Brown’s program, “Newsnight.” Mr. Cooper’s program will also expand to two hours, from 10 until midnight. CNN has experimented with that two-hour format over the past month, with Mr. Cooper joining Mr. Brown to serve as co-anchor of the program.
The audience levels for that program have increased markedly in the last month, a development that CNN attributed to Mr. Cooper’s presence. In the 7 p.m. hour, where Mr. Cooper had previously worked, CNN will insert the final hour of its three-hour-long “Situation Room” program with Wolf Blitzer. That program has been running from 3 to 6 p.m. Eastern time each weekday. Now it will run from 4 to 6 p.m., leading into an hourlong newscast anchored by Lou Dobbs, with Mr. Blitzer coming back at 7 p.m. for one more hour.
Hopkins native Aaron Brown, once considered the face of CNN, has left the cable-news outlet. Starting Monday, his “Newsnight” will be replaced by an expanded, two-hour version of “Anderson Cooper 360” from 9 to 11 p.m.
Brown was on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment. In a memo to staffers, CNN President Jon Klein lauded Brown for his writing skills and thoughtful perspective.
“Personally, I will miss Aaron and his wicked sense of humor,” Klein wrote. “Given his respect throughout the industry, there is no question that he will be missed.”
The ABC News veteran joined CNN shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and was widely praised for his coverage of that story. He was immediately pegged as the network’s top personality and breaking-news anchor. But since early last year, the spotlight has gotten more and more crowded with the likes of Wolf Blitzer, Paula Zahn and Cooper, whose star rose with his coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Giving him the day’s most prominent slot confirms his importance to an outlet that has regained some of the ratings ground it has lost, but still trails Fox News.
Indeed: there may be some who may read political implications into it, but in broadcast journalism changes are often made as swiftly as a shark’s fatal attack — for the quintessential bottom-line reason (ratings equal $$). In the case of talk radio shows or radio personnel changes, listeners are oftentimes not even given the courtesy of a press release.
Also keep in mind a fact of corporate life: when a new boss comes in he/she often wants to jugglE things around and “clean house” in a way to get his or her own preferred people in key slots, to stamp a brand new vision on the company. In CNN’s case, the stakes are high and ever-so-public since everyone regularly can see how CNN is doing compared to Fox and MSNBC with ratings.
The Miami Herald reports: “CNN sources said Brown is expected to take time with his family before deciding on his next career move.”
Actually, he can land anywhere. Brown distinguished himself quite well and could be a good addition to any network news staff as a commentator or reporter.
It’s a classic case of someone who was suddenly a hot property cooling down — then being replaced by the newest brand-new hot property. In the case of CNN, it has now chosen the flashier Cooper over the more low-key Brown — which is undertandable when you keep in mind that the once-dominant CNN is competing against the more flamboyant now-dominant Fox News Network.
UPDATE I: For more news report links see TV Newser which has a LOT of great posts on this story.
UPDATE II: CBS’s Public Eye blog (a really good one) has this MUST READ post.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.